A bipartisan group of 50 senators and House members is requesting that Attorney General Merrick Garland provide information on illegal marijuana cultivation operations in the United States that are tied to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“Chinese nationals—including those with potential ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—are reportedly operating thousands of illicit marijuana farms across the country,” they wrote. “The thousands of illicit Chinese marijuana growing operations pose a direct threat to public safety, human rights, national security, and the addiction crisis gripping our nation.”
The lawmakers said Chinese marijuana-growing operations had been discovered in many states, including California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Washington.
“In some cases, the grow operators were also engaged in human trafficking, forced labor, drug trafficking, and violent crime,” the lawmakers wrote. “These farms are most commonly in states with legal marijuana programs where illicit growers try to disguise their operations in communities where law-abiding Americans live and work.”
“Experts believe there is substantial evidence implicating the CCP in directly supporting illicit marijuana grow operations across the United States,” the lawmakers wrote. “Whether located in retrofitted residential homes or on farmland, state regulatory and law enforcement entities appear unable to address these potentially CCP supported grow operations despite their significant threat to local communities across the country.”
The letter said that more than 2,000 marijuana farmers in Oklahoma “are linked to China.”
“Investigators in Oklahoma discovered illicit marijuana growers engaged in human trafficking, sex trafficking, ketamine trafficking, illegal gambling, and international money laundering,” the lawmakers wrote.
“Allowing illicit marijuana farms tied to the CCP is a continued threat to national security, public safety, and human rights,” the lawmakers concluded.
At the end of the letter, the lawmakers posed multiple questions for Mr. Garland to answer before Feb. 23. They asked for the number of CCP-affiliated marijuana farms in the United States and whether state legalization of marijuana has “affected the proliferation of CCP-affiliated marijuana farms,” among other questions.
“How many CCP-affiliated marijuana farms have obtained state-issued licenses to grow marijuana, either directly or through a shell company?” the lawmakers also asked in the letter.
According to the Justice Department, Mr. Weng managed a marijuana-growing operation in Wetumka, Oklahoma, from December 2022 to May 2023. The pair drove delivery vans, including one disguised as an Amazon van, to transport marijuana from Wetumka to a stash house in Oklahoma City. From there, they transported a total of more than 56,000 pounds of marijuana to the East Coast via semi-truck trailer.
Local law enforcement discovered 19,661 marijuana plants, more than $100,000 of vacuum-sealed cash, and a firearm during a raid of Mr. Weng’s facility in May 2023.
“Many of these illicit grow operations work in conjunction with transnational criminal organizations,” they wrote. “Illicit marijuana farms provide unregulated access for consumers to Schedule 1 substances and help provide additional revenue sources to transnational criminal organizations.”
