Illegal Chinese marijuana grows have taken over much of rural Maine.
The government is either incapable — or unwilling — to do anything about it.
The Maine Wire has identified more than 100 properties that are part of a sprawling network of Chinese-owned sites operating as unlicensed, illicit cannabis growing operations in rural Maine.
According to an unclassified memo from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) obtained by the Maine Wire, the illicit grows are operated by Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs).
The properties cover Somerset County, Penobscot County, Kennebec County, Franklin County, Androscoggin County, and Oxford County.
The sites were purchased over the past three years by single adults, primarily from New York and Massachusetts, using cash or financing arranged through a handful of mortgage companies.
The Maine Wire investigation began following the leak of a separate DHS memo that revealed the existence of more than 270 such sites in Maine.
That memo, first reported by Jennie Taer of the Daily Caller News Foundation, offered the first public confirmation of what law enforcement officials have long known, but what neighbors to these properties and legal marijuana entrepreneurs have only suspected.
Namely, that Chinese foreign nationals are exploiting Maine’s lax marijuana laws, the Biden Administration’s immigration policies, and cheap real estate in rural Maine to grow a fortune using exploited illegal alien laborers.
Nationwide, there are approximately 749 properties that DHS has linked to Asian TCOs.
The leaked memo included a spreadsheet, which has not been made public, that identified “270 properties within [Maine] that are actively used by the Chinese in relation to their operations.”
Local, state, county, and federal officials, speaking mostly on the condition of anonymity, have confirmed to the Maine Wire that various law enforcement agencies have known about this foreign network of illicit drug manufacturing and distribution for more than two years.
On Sept. 15, DHS sent the following memo to Maine law enforcement asking for help gathering intel on the properties:
We are requesting a response by state, county, and/or local law enforcement officials with any information regarding illegal marijuana grows being operated in their areas by suspected Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCO). This collection effort is supporting a national intelligence gathering initiative to identify a comprehensive picture of the threat posed to national security by Asian TCOs operating illegally in the United States.
A typical response may include:
- confirmation that this activity is occurring
- the number of suspected grows in your area of responsibility
- reports by concerned citizens or local officials relating to illegal grow operations by Asian TCOs
- or any other information respondents may deem of value.
“There are hundreds of these operations occurring throughout the state. It’s upsetting to those who live near these operations, and even those who are following Maine laws and procedures,” Penobscot County Sheriff Troy Morton told the DCNF.
Maine’s congressional delegation has called upon the Department of Justice to shutter the operation, but Attorney General Merrick Garland has yet to respond in writing.
Most of the properties were acquired after Maine legalized the sale of recreational pot in 2020.
According to the DHS memos, the sites are operated by Chinese foreign nationals, some who are in the U.S. illegally. DHS believes the network earns an estimated total income of $4.37 billion per year, some of which is returned to entities in the People’s Republic of China.
The locations of the sites — and the names of their owners — have not been publicly released.
[Got a tip? Send us an email!]
Triad Weed in Rural Maine
Marijuana grown at these sites is notorious in Maine’s legal cannabis industry as “Triad weed.”
“When I say they function like a mafia, it is absolutely true,” one longtime veteran of Maine’s medicinal and recreational pot industry told the Maine Wire. “They have a very intricate network.”
Scrupulous dispensaries avoid purchasing or selling marijuana from the illicit grows because it has a reputation for containing pesticides, fungicides, and other banned or harmful contaminants.
But legal growers all agree that at least some Triad weed is entering Maine markets.
“I would say most of their product ends up skipping across the border,” the industry veteran said. “But the shit that stays in Maine is what is helping to contribute to the collapse of flower prices.”
The operators of these foreign-owned sites are also notorious around grow supply shops in Maine, where they are often found buying thousands of dollars in cultivation supplies.
Speaking little to no English, the operators acquire supplies by pointing at images on their phones or by having someone out-of-state translate over the phone.
According to DHS, the Asian TCOs use the proceeds of the marijuana grows to fund other illegal activities, including narcotics trafficking and human trafficking.
The DCNF reported, based on Maine and federal sources, that many of the participants in the operation are either in the U.S. illegally or have applied for asylum status or permanent residency.
Morton, the sheriff of Penobscot County, told DCNF most individuals under investigation for being involved in illegal marijuana grows aren’t U.S. citizens.
“Regardless of where the individuals are from, the true problem involves conflicting state and federal laws. We also have little to no oversight, allowing for criminal activity to occur at a high degree,” Morton said.
Morton declined to elaborate on those comments, instead referring the Maine Wire to the U.S. Attorney of Maine.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney of Maine declined to comment for this story.
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, the agency that published the original leaked memo, declined to comment on the memo.
“The US Border Patrol coordinates closely with our interagency partners when conducting investigations and when taking enforcement actions,” the spokesperson said. “It would not be appropriate for the USBP to comment on behalf of other agencies.”
“Furthermore, Border Patrol does not publicly disclose sources of information, investigative methods, or other information that may jeopardize the safety of witnesses or otherwise compromise any investigation,” said the spokesperson.
The Maine Wire offered to provide the U.S. Attorney of Maine and the Maine State Police with a list of illicit foreign-owned marijuana grows in Maine prior to the publication of this story, but both declined.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has been investigating illegal Chinese marijuana grows in Maine for at least two years, declined to comment for this story.
Finding Maine’s Illegal Grow Sites — and Their Owners
A review of real estate records, physical site inspections, and interviews with hundreds of Mainers has identified more than 100 Chinese-owned properties in Maine — all purchased by single men and women from out-of-state, primarily Brooklyn and Staten Island, over the past three years.
The buyers often pay cash, but dozens of the properties carry mortgages from just a few finance companies.
The sites are almost all in rural Maine and show evidence of active or recently active marijuana grow operations, including grow supplies and the obvious smell of marijuana even at a considerable distance.
Almost all of the sites have had extensive modifications to houses, garages, and outbuildings to support marijuana growing, including the installation of 300- or 400-amp commercial grade electricity service, consumer-owned utility poles, and multiple heat pumps.
Neighbors confirm that the houses frequently smell of marijuana and several times a year, a white van with New York or Massachusetts plates will arrive and depart. Neighbors also reported, in some cases, seeing tractor-trailer trucks delivering grow supplies.
The properties the Maine Wire has identified account for thousands of acres of land in rural Maine and tens of millions of dollars worth of real estate. Marijuana industry experts said a standard 2,500 square foot house in Maine could, if properly renovated into a marijuana grow, generate $1 million to $3 million in marijuana per year.
Although most of the properties are owned under the names of Chinese men and women from New York or Massachusetts, some of them are owned through LLCs.
The Maine Wire was not able to independently confirm the immigration or citizenship status of the owners of these properties; however, nothing in U.S. or Maine law would prevent a Chinese national from purchasing a property in Maine, even if they were in the country illegally.
The Maine Wire has also discovered records tying multiple sites together, including car registrations, municipal waste permits, real estate records, and other public records, which, taken together, support the determination that the grow sites are connected and centrally controlled under an umbrella organization.
At a grow site in Fairfield, for example, there was a Toyota Corolla registered to the owner of a separate site in Garland. That same vehicle was later observed at the site in Garland.
At a different Fairfield site, there was a truck with Mass. plates that had a dump permit sticker for Dexter (40 miles East) and a dump sticker for Wilton (40 miles West).
Law enforcement sources confirmed that they are aware of the existence of multiple sites in both Dexter and Wilton.
Several of the properties that show obvious signs of active or recently active marijuana growing operations have been purchased by Chinese individuals from New York or Massachusetts only to be resold shortly after to other Chinese individuals from New York or Brooklyn.
Indoor Marijuana Cultivation 101
Before we get to the sites the Maine Wire identified, it will be helpful to go over some basics of growing marijuana indoors.
The chief necessity is abundant electricity. That electricity is used to power the grow lights, which consume substantially more energy than your average LED lighting.
But because those lights also generate a tremendous amount of heat, the grow rooms require cooling and ventilation equipment.
The ideal temperature for growing marijuana is 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit. Without significant air conditioning, the lighting would make a grow room too hot.
The primary way the sites in Maine cool their grow rooms and control humidity is through heat pumps.
The combined electricity consumption of the lighting and the heat pumps requires robust upgrades to electrical infrastructure at a typical residential property.
Most of the sites identified by the Maine Wire show evidence of recent electrical upgrades and the addition of multiple heat pumps.
Linesmen from Central Maine Power and local electricians both shared, on the condition of anonymity, stories about being asked to upgrade residential buildings with the power capacity typically only needed by energy-intensive businesses.
“Usually it’s like a 10 KVA transformer that they overload out of a, like a regular house. You won’t even be able to tell,” said a CMP Linesman. “And so we gotta go upgrade and usually one person will come out and stare at us the whole time. They usually don’t know any English”
One electrician in central Maine was asked to install commercial grade service to a mobile home — a job he refused because he found the customers, who did not speak English, too sketchy.
“I met with them one time a couple years back but didn’t like what I was seeing,” the electrician said.
The two most common electrical upgrades encountered at these sites are new 300- or 400-amp breaker boxes and consumer-owned utility poles.
Without such upgrades, running a grow operation on common residential wiring risks starting a fire, as has happened at sites in Canaan, Winterport, and Vassalboro.
In addition to electricity, the indoor grow rooms need to seal out ambient light, which is why all of the windows are boarded up at these locations.
Ambient light during a dark-cycle can cause young marijuana plants to turn into hermaphrodites, which decreases the potency of the flower.
Here are some more in-depth looks at sites the Maine Wire has identified based on real estate records, photographs provided by sources, public records, and interviews with law enforcement and residents of the towns.
629 Norridgewock Road, Fairfield
This 4-bed, 2-bath house was purchased by 32-year-old Juan Lin on July 30, 2021, according to Somerset Registry of Deeds records.
The windows are obscured, not with curtains or blinds, but with a type of foil foam board used to keep out ambient light.
On the back of the house, there are three active heat pumps, two on the main house and one on the semi-detached garage.
The home also boasts an electrical entrance that far exceeds the standard residential electrical equipment.
In 2021, prior to Lin’s purchase, the home did not have any heat pumps or commercial grade electricity.
A master electrician licensed to work in Maine said the electrical equipment on the side of the home appeared to be a 400-amp service with two 200-amp manual disconnects — an expensive arrangement that is rare to install on a residential property.
In layman’s terms, the house is consuming far more energy than your average Maine home.
It also reeks of pot, according to neighbors.
Inside the home, photos show clear evidence of a marijuana growing operation. (Note: these were provided by a source who asked to remain anonymous.)
Legal Maine cultivators consulted by the Maine Wire assessed that this is what a standard grow operation looks like, noting the chemical containers, the newly installed benching on either side of the room, and and wiring.
This picture shows the same room prior to 2021.
At the time the more recent photos were taken, there were two vehicles on the property. A charcoal gray truck with Massachusetts license plates and a large white cargo van, also with Mass. plates.
According to public records, the only other address associated with Lin is in Quincy, Mass., where he appears to live with several family members.
Though Lin owns the property, there is no evidence that he has himself participated in the cultivation or trafficking of marijuana.
The Maine Wire has identified more than 100 similar sites in Maine that all fit many elements of the same pattern: 1) purchased in the past three years by a single Chinese men or women from New York or Massachusetts; 2) strong odor of marijuana even from a distance of 100s of feet; 3) rubbish from commercial grow products; 4) massive upgrades to the electrical capacity of the property; 5) property has large garage, outbuilding, or barn; 6) all windows are completely blacked out; 7) multiple security cameras; and 8) multiple heat pumps running constantly.
4 Smith Road & 43 Cape Cod Hill Road, New Sharon
In New Sharon (population: 1,500), the Maine Wire identified two obvious marijuana grows purchased within the last three years.
A property at 4 Smith Road was purchased in July 2021 by Wen Bin Zhao, 34, of Brooklyn.
The house bears the tell-tale signs: all the windows boarded up, electrical upgrades, and, most tellingly, an overpowering odor of marijuana that could be easily detected from hundreds of feet away.
Similarly, this massive property at 43 Cape Cod Hill Road was purchased in June 2021 by Muhua Chen, 38, of Staten Island, N.Y.
During a visit in October, windows visible from the public road and the neighbors driveway appeared completely boarded up and the odor of marijuana was powerful (though that could have been because the site is about 200 yards from 5 Smith Road).
Although Chen and Zhao’s names appear on the deeds of these properties, there is no evidence that they have themselves cultivated or trafficked illicit marijuana.
Here’s the house now:
Madison: Golf Course Road and Lakewood Road
Madison is host to at least three active indoor marijuana growing operations. The operations are at 383 Lakewood Road, 288 Golf Course Road, and 21 Golf Course Road.
When the Maine Wire visited these three properties attempting to interview the occupants, we observed the tell-tale signs of marijuana grows — blacked out windows, electrical upgrades, multiple heatpumps, and the obvious odor of marijuana.
The 21 Golf Course Road is owned by Changju Wu and was previously owned by Joe Hao Liang, who also owns 383 Lakewood Road.
The house at 288 Golf Course Road was owned by Yanyi Wu, 30.
Wu, who previously lived in Brooklyn, purchased the property in Oct. 2020 and sold it this September to Jamie Yajing Chen, also previously from Brooklyn.
Wu is also the owner of a house in Embden. Although Wu obtained financing for the Embden location, the two Madison properties were purchased in cash.
Like the Fairfield location, the property at 383 Lakewood Rd. has undergone significant renovations since it was purchased.
Photos available on Zillow from before Wu acquired the property show it had no heat pumps installed on the front of the building.
While attempting to contact Wu at the house for an interview, the Maine Wire observed three heat pumps on the front of the building and one on the back. Comparing the before and after pictures also shows that the garage has had new power service installed within the past three years.
When the Maine Wire visited, every window was blacked out with sheet rock and blankets, and the smell of marijuana was apparent.
A roughly five minute drive from the Lakewood Road properties brings you to Golf Course Road.
At 288 Golf Course Road, the house smelled strongly marijuana when the Maine Wire attempted to contact the owner.
A vent on the side of the garage was pumping hot air that smelled strongly of marijuana.
Although a woman came out of the house to talk, conducting an interview was impossible because she only spoke Mandarin.
The occupant, a middle-aged Chinese woman, called an unidentified person who attempted to translate and conveyed that they were uninterested in talking.
The windows on the house and the garage were all boarded up with either foam insulation or sheetrock, and the home had commercial grade electrical service. The home also had multiple security cameras.
Like with other properties, before and after pictures show significant changes to the electrical equipment on the house following its purchase.
On the same road is another site that a neighbor described as a Chinese-owned marijuana growing operation.
The neighbor, who asked not to be named, said it was common knowledge on the road that the house was being used to grow marijuana. The aroma left little reason to doubt his opinion.
Comparing older pictures of the property to how it appears now shows significant modifications to the five car garage, including window covers to exclude ambient light.
169 Baker Road, Winterport
Fires are not uncommon at these sites.
This house in Winterport was purchased in August 2021 by Wanzhen Huang, 50, of Brooklyn, N.Y. The purchase price was $182,000, and Zillow currently estimates it at $348,900, but Zillow might not know about the unrepaired fire damage. This is how the home looks now.
When the Maine Wire visited the home seeking an interview with the occupants, it appeared abandoned.
346 Ohio Hill Road Rt 23, Fairfield
This dilapidated Ohio Hill Road house was purchased by Yifeng Yu, 38, of El Monte, Calif., in February of 2020. Images provided to the Maine Wire by a source who asked to remain anonymous show marijuana growing equipment littering the property, including plant pots, fertilizer containers, and soil supplements.
195 West Road, Chesterville
In Chesterville, the Maine Wire observed the strong odor of marijuana at this property.
A source, who asked to remain anonymous, said CBP has visited this property and even used a hidden camera to photograph it over a period of months.
A CBP agent declined to comment when asked about this property.
Harming Legal Growers
Legal marijuana cultivators told the Maine Wire that licensed operators have long believed that at least some weed grown illegally at sites controlled by Chinese organized crime is making into Maine’s legal marijuana market.
The influx of cheap Chinese weed — which cannabis aficionados have dubbed “Triad Weed” — is, they believe, depressing prices.
“[Marijuana prices] went from $2,800 during COVID and right before COVID,” said one medicinal grower. “Now, for a good pound of flower, it’s like $1,250. So your profit on that after your CMP bill, your profit on that is like, you know, $600.”
“All these little guys and all these caregivers that are doing the right thing are getting shut out and shutting down,” they said.
The plummeting price for legal cannabis in Maine coincides well with when Chinese buyers began scooping up rural Maine properties and converting them into grow operations.
How Much Money Are These Sites Making?
First off: How much marijuana could each site produce?
According to industry experts the Maine Wire consulted, the amount of marijuana produced at a given spot would depend on the skill of the growers, the resources at their disposal, and how much of the home and garage has been dedicated to grow rooms.
Assuming maximum efficiency, a 2,500 square-foot house could accommodate 50 grow lights, which would produce 100 pounds of processed marijuana per harvest. Such an operation could expect four to twelve harvests per year, or 400 to 1,200 pounds of marijuana flower.
How much is that in U.S. dollars? That depends on where the flower is ultimately sold. If the flower is sold into Maine’s barely regulated medicinal market, it’s almost certainly being sold for less than $800 per pound. However, if the flower is being trafficked back to NYC, the black market price is closer to $3,000 per pound.
Although there are a considerable range of factors, multiple individuals told the Maine Wire that it was realistic to conclude that an operation of this type could fetch $1.2M to $3.6M, not including the considerable costs of electricity, fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, and, in some cases, mortgage payments.
This will be the first in a series of stories from the Maine Wire concerning Chinese organized crime in Maine.
Future articles in this series will focus on the financial arrangements that have allowed Chinese buyers to purchase so much real estate in Maine, the political response to this problem from Augusta, how the Office of Cannabis Policy understands the problem, and what steps law enforcement is taking.
Edward Tomic and Graham Pollard contributed to this report.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="22663 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=22663">81 Comments
Outstanding work. Didn’t catch this type of investigative journalism in the Press Herald. I guess they’re too focused on the mayoral race in Portland to be decided by another leftist nightmare known as rank [skank] choice voting.
Wow, what a story. I thought the state was going to pot.
Maybe the FBI will take a break from raiding pro-life protesters and Conservative Catholics to get into these Chinese homes.
Excellent article. This is the type of thorough investigative reporting that has been woefully absent from main-stream legacy media for many years.
Wow, Steve! Excellent reporting! You should get a Pulitizer for this! Bravo. You are a Treasure to Maine. A Light in Dark times. So very grateful for you.
Great work here Steve
Where are federal authorities? Too busy fabricating evidence against Donald Trump and MAGA supporters, harassing parents who complain to school boards about racist and sexually explicit materials , and weaponizing alphabet federal agencies against law-abiding gun owners.
…outstanding article, Steve! Sad state of affairs we, as a country, find ourselves because of the Biden Regime.
This is very eye opening and amazing journalism. Hope this springboards the Maine Wire into the national spot light
This article belongs on the desk of every Maine federal official and in the morning briefing meetings of Senator Collins and King.
Wake up folks. We are already at war with the CCP ,only they are simply rotting our foundations from within by operations such as these.
All you have to do is read Howard W. French’s book , China’s Second Continent: How a million migrants are building a new empire in Africa and you will easily see the MO for subsuming a nation via its worst attributes. That was published in 2014 ! They have continued to practice the same tactics worldwide to undermine nations via criminal and coercive operations that accumulate resource wealth and property in order to eventually assert coercive financial control of the localized government structures ,then eventually the national level.
This may sound hyperbolic , but the far reaching investigative work shatters the delusion that the marijuana industry itself is anything positive–and it is not simply the TRIAD operations ,though clearly they are the worst of the worst from the standpoint of abusing the flagrantly sabotaged ( by the Biden administration ) immigration system and Maine’s stupid legalization of recreational and “medicinal” marijuana.
Top shelf journalism that is surely lacking from the vast majority of MSM. I’m hoping the federal and state authorities are so tight lipped because they are planning to rectify this scourge on the landscape of Maine via raid and prosecution.
FINALLY! This story includes our neighbors in our nice neighborhood. Police say they can’t do anything.
It’s SE the DC sleuth maybe he’s 30 maybe 92. Fkn since 15, Promethean society. Now Stevie watches Lincoln, eats snappers as a meal, he’s hanging up there in Deter Maine talking Regan with his pal Neil.
🎶It’s SE the DC sleuth maybe he’s 30 maybe 92. Fkn since 15, Promethean society. Now Stevie watches Lincoln, eats snappers as a meal, he’s hanging up there in Deter Maine talking Regan with his pal Neil. 🎶
“The government is either incapable — or unwilling — to do anything about it.”
You left out culpable. Just like booze and tobacco in decades past, if weed is seen as a revenue source for government, blind eyes turn up everywhere. Could be the town via property taxes, as well as the state via various other taxes levied on the “commodity.”
Brunswick papers a while back ran an article on an indoor grow site of some 20,000 sq ft in the centrally located Brunswick Industrial Park, and then the planning board approved an expansion to accommodate production of “edibles.”
And Democrats have just won big in local elections. You have to be an idiot or hate America to vote a Democrat into office. This is what you get when you do.
Going by articles like this the growing power of China is very clear. No other nation gets this much coverage in domestic issues. This tells a lot in China’s role in the world
WOW,
I’m in Texas and this story captivated me. Great reporting.
You should go to California and report on the illegal grows in the desert areas I grew up around. People can’t hike public land without being confronted with an illegal grow site or aggressive dogs protecting such sites.
Its spreading through the western states.
Published too late for Ohio voters.
What is a “marijuana grow”? Maybe intended to say “grove,” but then confusion between “grove” and “grow” makes one wonder about the author’s and publisher’s capacities.
Hey Steve, can I get a copy of that google earth map with all the grow sites pinned? Looks like there a few in my area that I’d love to check out.
Could this happen in Maine?
Last Tuesday, a small rural town in Michigan VOTED OUT their ENTIRE LOCAL GOVERNMENT, after the town board approved a foreign-affiliated (China) electric battery plant in the town.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=csFXCIMkGRU&feature=shared
Preserve Maine, Vote Them Out!!
Great job Steve… just caught you on WarRoom… this will now get the national attention it deserves.
Pulitzer!
Biden has consequences. This is one of them.
The cape with attached garage was my house I built 30 years ago. No way in hell did I know who I was selling to when this sold. Buyer posed as a family guy, Chinese family. Was asking about electrical contractors the day of closing…very sad. I have heard alot from neighbors way before this article. Just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to money supplied for all this.
Google has California shutting down 100 grow converted home’s in a single day because of this exact thing, China’s investments here. We need to enforce the amount of property that can be bought by foreigners! Sorry…how else?
I used to think that nothing could surprise me.
This report stopped me in my tracks.
Great reporting.
Sadly a lost art.
Nothing will change til Hedge funds & Elites want to purchase these houses at fire sale prices, then DOCurruption will swoop in close them down & auction off properties. Offenders will be given free airfare home.
Awesome article. So refreshing to actually read a “news” article with facts and details…be very careful. It will not be the Chinese that come for you, it will be someone in a uniform, DEA or FBI jacket…One detail I would be certain of, people/ officials in charge in these areas will be a part of this. If politicians, police (sheriffs especially) and the legal system etc. did not want this to continue it would stop..over night. Unfortunately our government only stops crime when they do not benefit from it. Look for local officials living above their obvious means…I will wager you will easily find it..
This is an amazing piece of journalism!
Revenge for the Opium wars
Next check FLA. Our rental was used as a growing location. They left town suddenly and it cost us 5K+ to clean it up. One bedroom closet was wall to wall chrome, Pots, blowers,water tubes, super power lamps, leaving stained floors, rugs and walls. Totally cleaned up now and up for sale.
Thank you for this incredible story. In Hong Kong, immigration is very strict. Entry laws into Hong Kong state that any form of marijuana products is illegal. Do not take CBD creams, lotions shampoos or anything like that or be charged. The USA is finding itself in a shocking state of affairs for so many reasons. End times, I suppose.
As to the heat pumps…any chance the “owner’s” filed for, and received, state and/or federal rebates under a “clean” energy scheme?
Check this out – as it could add another twist to this well reported outrage:
https://www.efficiencymaine.com/at-home/ductless-heat-pumps/
It would be a shame if Mainers took matters into their own hands. Lots of suspicious fires. Just saying…
Step #1: Get rid of Maine’s stupid Democrat Governor .
The state of Maine needs to get off there ass and do something the feds also !
How many people are getting paid off? Everybody knows but nobody gets raided? If that was you or I that had one illegal grow operation we would be raided at first light and hung from the light pole out front. Chinese triads making billions a year, yea no problem ………….. anyone that turned a blind eye to these demons should be thrown in prison for the rest of their days
Adding my congrats for a great job of investigative reporting.!
…NOW: Why won’t DEA or any other federal agency respond to your questions, or respond with “We not gonna say nuttin” ? Of course they’ll say they can’t comment because “ongoing investigation,” but the real answer is: payoffs. All in cash, so untraceable. My guess is direct to the biden crime family, cuz then there’s no need for the crooks to pay off anyone lower down the food chain, like the ludicrously-corrupt Merrick Garland or anyone in the U.S. Attorney’s office, since all federal employees take their orders from higher up.
….If, as your tech consultants said, a good growing op will net $1 to 3 million per year in 2,500 square feet, and if you multiply that by 100 sites, you’re looking at $100 *million* to $300 million per year. Lots of cash to pay bribes, buy weapons and still have cash leftover.
….Again, great job. Stay safe.
If the Governor or Law enforcement will do nothing the people of Maine better step up and do something after all we the people are the Government. Start executing these people then you will get their attention.
Unfortunately, we can top all of these stories. Oregon and in particular, Southern Oregon and Northern Calif. has been dealing with this problem since before 2008 when medical marijuana became legal. This problem not only brings in illegal growing operations and illegal people but cartels involved with guns/weapons, drugs like fentanyl and meth as well as children and women trafficking. It creates other problems like poisoning wells, ground water, creeks etc and puts a large scale drain on water resources as most rural people source their water through wells. Our Sheriff and other Sheriff’s in other communities have teamed up and have been working hard to shut these people down. Unfortunately, another grow operation springs up as soon as one is shut down. If we had these people deported and or sent to jail and property confiscated there might be a means to the end.
Where are DEA, Sheriffs and FBI?
Hopefully local law enforcement will be reading this article and doing something about it.
We should be demanding that those in power in Augusta do whatever is needed to stop this influx of Chinese nationals from NY and MA!
Cash is no issue to these folks as can be seen in the property buying taking place in and around Boston, hundreds of homes are being bought for cash by foreign (Chinese) nationals.
Full of shit article, no chineze people around here
Send in the MAINE NATIONAL GUARD and TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS!
Aren’t the Chinese kind of involved in the Fentanyl trade also?
Thanks Joe Biden!
The Deep state is a real thing, people are finally starting to see that. Had Hillary won in 2016, we would be done for by now! WEF type globalist have bought out politicians everywhere.
Check out “Cartels Operating in America’s Forests (with John Nores) – Change Agents with Andy Stumpf”, or “The Committee of 300 by Dr. John Coleman”
Or probably the best place to start would be to watch: Plandemic 3: The Great Awakening on X or instacrap.
https://twitter.com/Plandemic3Movie
Or probably the best place to start would be to watch: Plandemic 3: The Great Awakening on X or instacrap.
Or probably the best place to start, would be to watch: Plandemic 3: The Great Awakening on X
Several years ago this subject was brought up to our Sheriffs Dept. and the person who told me said the reply was “They were told to stand down on this. The Feds were handling this case”. Must be 10% for the”big guy” in this some where.
FBI too busy trying to convict Donald Trump. Can’t waste time on this petty stuff.
I sold my house to a Chinese man 4 years ago in Maine. I’m wondering my former home is growing house now. That would be so sad.
Do you want egg roll with your order?
Soo…WHY is TRUMP being blamed for this CRAP?
Trump made his $$ on property in general. NOT grow houses.
@FlaMan, my cousin had the same experience in Florida. He rented a farm to some folks, came by to check on it several months later, and the barn was converted to a grow operation. He said he went directly to the sheriff’s department and reported it because he didn’t want to have someone raid it later and come for him.
@Chris Cort — the term for these farms is “grow,” not “grove.”
@Amac, you don’t need to execute anybody. If the house were to catch fire and burn down, the triads would likely take care of that part.
Just leaving this out there: Central Maine Power (or whoever the local delivery utility is) has historic records of electricity consumption by address for years. It seems like it would be relatively easy for someone in LE to identify addresses that are using a lot more electricity now than they were, say, 5 years ago. That might be what they call, in the LE business, a clue.
As a retired journalist in the Midwest, I am simply blown away by the depth and breadth of your reporting. This is the finest investigative articles I’ve seen in years. Kudos to everyone involved! I hope your fine work gets results.
Good article Steve. One question. What makes these marijuana grows Illegal?
Excellent article TRUTH FINALLY! Been watching the illegal Chinese grow house on 201 north of the golf course for at least 3 years + now. All the telltale signs of an indoor grow. In the meantime we shut our indoor grow operation down and grow outdoor only due to the cost of operations supplies and legal licensing. It’s sad to think besides the illegal operations they are running- it’s just the tip of the iceberg what this money is truly funding. You think your “safe” in Maine? Ignorance is bliss.
@ Gail on November 18, 2023 2:30 AM
Re “ignorance is bliss”…
Ignorance of lies and deceptions (=most mainstream news and establishment decrees) is bliss because exposing yourself to that is self-propagandization.
Ignorance of truths is not, or only temporarily or rarely, bliss because it is ultimately self-defeating …. https://johnmichaeldemarco.com/15-reasons-why-ignorance-is-not-bliss
The FALSE mantra of “ignorance is bliss”, promoted in the latter sense, is a product of a fake sick culture that has indoctrinated its “dumbed down” (therefore TRULY ignorant, therefore easy to control) people with many such manipulative slogans. Eg…
““We’re all in this together” is a tribal maxim. Even there, it’s a con, because the tribal leaders use it to enforce loyalty and submission. … The unity of compliance.” — Jon Rappoport, Investigative Journalist
You can find the proof that ignorance is hardly ever bliss (and if so only superficial temporary fake bliss), and how you get to buy into this lie (and other self-defeating lies), in the article “The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room –The Holocaustal Covid-19 Coronavirus Madness: A Sociological Perspective & Historical Assessment Of The Covid “Phenomenon”” …. http://www.CovidTruthBeKnown.com (or https://www.rolf-hefti.com/covid-19-coronavirus.html)
“Separate what you know from what you THINK you know.” — Unknown
“If ‘ignorance is bliss’ –there should be more happy people.” — Unknown
Remember the Nazi “training compound” up in Springfield? The one operated by feds and paid for by Democrat fundraiser Fred “The Fed” Ramey. They sold the property mid October for $39,000.
“The property, at the heart of heightened public concern and several Maine legislative moves aimed at stopping the hate training ground, was sold for $39,000 on Oct. 20 in a remote closing, according to the Maine Multiple Listing Service.”
“The Moores Road property was sold to Li Zuo of Malden, Massachusetts. with a quitclaim deed. A quitclaim deed transfers the title of a property faster but with few protections for the buyer.”
I wonder if anyone else noticed? First a fake nazi compound to expand govt tyranny laws, now an illegal grow farm that local law enforcement pretend they can’t touch. Do you think the bank funding this mortgage warned the Triad this location was under a spotlight? They dont seem all that concerned.
This is just as late Rome Republic, when the society was controlled by bureaucrats and common people are powerless, bureaucrats are not essential bad people but they are not flexible, and tend to follow some SOPs, and if there’s no SOP, then they don’t know what to do. Americans are suffering from both bureaucrats and foreign enemies now.
Let flip some wigs people. Some times you gota do what you gata do.
Charlie Chen
WTF are you talking about. Maybe in your country bureaucrats run the show, This is the
United States.
We call the shots. If the government that works for us doesn’t do the job we pay them to do, then we’ll do it ourselves.
I own property close to one of these operations in Fairfield. I reported the house in November while I was there. I asked the local police department to do a “welfare check” at that address due to windows being boarded up, the front door boarded, the roof looks like it’s going to cave in, but you could see slivers of light at night. All of this, and the skunky smell of pot traveled to my house with the doors & windows closed for Christ Sake. Nothing was done by the Fairfield law enforcement…. Sad
If anyone thinks that the same people are also not trafficking Fentanyl in the state, or possibly adding it to their harvest to keep the customers coming back for more, they’re a fool. Janet Mills just sits back and lets the state of Maine get taken over by Chinese drug traffickers… THAT should be the headline on the front page of every local newspaper.
As a Chinese-American, I fully support them in their marijuana grows. America and the west for centuries have been stomping on Asian countries. It’s going to get much worse for you cis-white privileged hoarders.
Steve, great article! I have land in Washington county, hope it stays safe.
Was it you I heard on the Glenn beck show last week?
Whoever the original caller was should be recognized as a truly concerned American. He called in to the beck show to explain what was going on in Maine and it really caught Becks interest. Beck then researched it and got in touch with the Maine wire (you, I’m guessing)
nobody is discussing this and I’m pretty sure word would not have got out if it weren’t for him.
THIS IS HOW WE GET REAL INFORMATION WITHOUT LIES! The MSM just puts out what is dictated from the WH, but people are waking up. More people should follow this system. If you are suspicious and have proof of foul play, call it into a national radio show with an enormous audience. Shine a light on it so people across the country will hear what’s going on in otter states and say “wait, that’s happy here too”
Thanks for the info!
Great investigative journalism, all those in the industry applaud your efforts. This has been an ongoing issue for many years even with Lepage in office, it’s just so obvious and out in the open now that someone put the pieces together and brought it to the public’s eye. OMP claim they have no authority to do anything but inspect (and harass) legitimate cultivator’s on plant count and convoluted licensing paperwork. Obviously law enforcement and the governing body are aware, yet unless they stumble upon them nothing is done. The grow supply chains from RI to Bangor are catering to sell the needed equipment including the diy heat pumps, nutrients, lights, and dehumidifier’s at highly discounted rates. These grows are not code enforced, taxed, or licensed, and have under the table payroll so they’re able to run as cheaply as possible killing the local medical/adult use markets. Yet each year the same policy makers make it harder and more expensive for a local cultivator and storefront to run a legitimate business. Inevitably this has squeezed out many mom and pop shops and replaced them with the governments more favorable out of state cooperate entities which they have already individually invested interests.
Deport everyone involved after prosecution
Democrats are so busy welcoming illegal immigrants that now we have China paying and buying properties to grow marijuana in Maine. Police would bust legal citizen growers but Chinese and illegal immigrants are welcome by the Mills administration. Any illegal immigrants should not be allowed. Our State is being ruined by these liberals taking over this beautiful State. Portland Press Herald is a liberal paper. What is the Maine republicans doing about this problem? Democrats and Liberals when are you going to get some common sense and see the mess you have caused.
Why Is Nothing be done about this?
I live in a rural town in Central Maine and lots of these operations all around me. We should start protesting along side these properties, using signs, calling out for national news. These paid off news stations and news papers are not reporting any serious news. Just what fits their narrative.
This is also the reason for homes are so expensive here in maine. Chinese will buy them no matter the price as long as it has a house on it.
Curious as to Federal ( Justice Dept ) policy towards these Chinese Operatives who are destabilizing our States and Nation!
The same people bitching about the high cost of Maine housing are the same ones that say this is not a problem… I wonder how many homes we don’t know about are used to grow weed instead of house Maine residents?
At first blush, this sounds like just a bad joke, but I guess it’s not. An excellent example of professional investigative journalism. Thank you! Mainers should be made aware of this phenomenon.
What does a US Attorney do?
Could we get the legal Chinese in Maine to display their name, rank, and serial number?
How has Chinese criminals taken over northern Maine growing illegal marijuana. Simple our governor is an incompetent dictatorial shrew whose only concerns are spending every tax dollar she can get her grubby hands on, aborting baby’s on demand and championing boys in girls bathrooms. Everything else this b*t*h could care less.