REVEALED: Chinese gangs are behind THOUSANDS of illegal weed farms across the ... trends now
Chinese gangs have set up thousands of illicit weed farms across the US as they begin to challenge Mexican cartels for supremacy as America's cannabis kingpins.
Authorities in Oklahoma, Oregon, California, New Mexico and Maine have all been battling a surge in Chinese weed farms, with some thought to be linked to criminal gangs known as 'triads'.
The spread is seemingly uncontainable, with police in Penobscot County, Maine, last week arresting three Chinese nationals at a weed farm and seizing 40 pounds of the drug alongside $4,700 in cash.
It is thought to be one of around 270 illegal weed farms worth more than $4billion that have sprung up across the state since it legalized the drug in 2020.
Local law enforcement has carried out multiple busts already this year.
A Chinese laborer at a illegal cannabis farm in New Mexico that was shut down in 2020. Former workers at the plant filed a lawsuit last year against its kingpins alleging mistreatment
Earlier this month, police in northern Maine raided multiple properties suspected of being part of a 270-strong network of illegal Chinese marijuana grows
Chen Wu, 47, was sentenced to life in prison earlier this year after pleading guilty to fatally shooting four people at an illegal medical marijuana operation in Oklahoma
Meanwhile, around 2,000 'suspicious' marijuana plants in Oklahoma have been linked to China, accounting for two thirds of weed farms under surveillance, state narcotics police told Politico.
Earlier this month, a Chinese ringleader was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to fatally shooting four people at an illegal medical marijuana operation in Oklahoma.
Mexican cartels have long dominated the market for illegal weed in the US, but officials are now warning that Chinese funding for such operations is skyrocketing.
It is not known whether the money is coming from groups connected to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but experts have pointed out that triads are usually only allowed to operate if they agree to act as informal 'enforcers' for the government.
Last year, a Homeland Security memo leaked to the Daily Caller attributed the growth to Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs), with one official raising the possibility that profits are being funneled back to Beijing.
Chinese immigrant workers have alleged they were lured to northern New Mexico under false pretenses and forced to work 14 hours a day at an illegal marijuana plant backed with funds from a China-based energy giant, according to a lawsuit filed last year.
The operation was shut down by police in 2020, but those behind it upped sticks to Oklahoma - taking many of their workers with them - before that farm was also busted in 2022.
The crackdown in Southern and Western states has been put forward as one reason for the explosion in weed farms in Maine.
For several years, Maine residents have spoken out about a surge in marijuana-odor filled homes popping up across the state, including near daycares and schools.
The Chinese owners, who speak little to no English, have allegedly earned a notorious reputation throughout Maine for spending
