A New York man was arrested Wednesday morning in Norridgewock following a raid on a Betterment Road property that uncovered a large 1,310-plant marijuana growing operation, according to Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster.
Zunjie Wu, 26, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was arrested and charged with Cultivation of Marijuana (Class B, over 500 plants) and Trafficking Scheduled Drugs (Class B), Sheriff Lancaster said in a press release.
Wu remains incarcerated in the Somerset County Jail.
The search warrant for the raid was executed by Sheriff’s Office Detectives and Deputies, with the assistance of Waterville Police Department Detectives, a Border Patrol Agent, an Agent from the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration, and Investigators of the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy.
The search warrant was obtained by the Sheriff’s Office Criminal Division based on suspected illegal marijuana plant cultivation activities believed to be taking place at the residence, Lancaster said.
During the execution of the search warrant, 1,310 marijuana plants, in various stages of maturity, were seized, along with several pounds of harvested marijuana and illicit drug related materials, he said.
Lancaster said the search warrant was a continuation of his department’s efforts to shut down illegal marijuana grow operations occurring in Somerset County.
Additional charges may be forthcoming against Wu and other individuals once the case is reviewed by the Somerset County District Attorney’s Office.
A Norridgewock resident confirmed to the Maine Wire that the raid took place at 108 Betterment Road, a property that was purchased in July 2022 under the name Tiffany Zhu.
Coincidentally, Zhu is also the name on the mortgage for a property on Round Top Road in Bingham, which was purchased in May 2022.
At the time, Zhu listed an address in Pembroke Pines, Florida.
In the same month, an easement was granted to Central Maine Power at the Bingham property under the same name, which is standard when property owners are upgrading the electrical service at a residence.
The Norridgewock raid is just the latest to target illegal marijuana operations owned and operated by individuals of Chinese descent.
Last year, a leaked Department of Homeland Security memo revealed that federal national security officials believe Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations are responsible for a network of more than 270 properties that are used to illegally grow and trafficking black market marijuana.
Many of the sites that have been raided in Maine, from Lincoln County to Penobscot County and Franklin County to Washington County, bear connections in the form of real estate records, corporate filings, tax records, and electrical records.
But Maine law enforcement officers have been reluctant to comment on connections between the various sites or the broader international networks that may be involved.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="25625 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=25625">6 Comments
This is a stupid article series. If you don’t like so called triad weed stop buying weed you losers. Seriously. You people reek of cannabis at the grocer, walmart, the hardware store and at stop lights. I don’t care who sells it. The problem is the buyers. Period. Bunch of rejects smoking dope all day. Get a life.
In real news the zionist pigs have taken off their uniforms and now dress as doctors and nurses in order to murder teenagers in comas. The zionist pigs are executing prisoners in the streets, driving over dead bodies with tanks, raping Palestinian women, eating the children and harvesting organs of the dead.
30,000 dead in Gaza. the jews are inbred genocidal apartheid lunatics. For proof of their inbreeding and genocidal intentions read the Old Testament. It is a historical record of jewish war crimes, rape and inbreeding.
Sounds like someone needs a nap.
Interesting to me is that I first heard about all these growing operations months ago on George and Ricks show, took a Conservative paper to do the reporting.
Seems to me, they are busting up all the growers that you all spoke about. Good work
Should your title read, “Friendship Day” Bust?
Keep calling CCP operators NYers
Never mind that Susie C’s, Pingree’s King’s and Jared’s ROI is about a dollar per dead Ukrainian
But no, keep staring at the splinter in a “NYer’s” eye, Stevie, not the beam in Maine’s eye
First, are they NY’ers or illegals given NY licenses? Second, that leaked document should have been released by homeland to every police and sheriff’s department in the state, it shouldn’t have had to be leaked! Thanks to the Maine Wire for doing the job! The LEO’s need to take the lead and shut these places down and if they are illegals this is multiple charges to which they should be held just like the J6’ers no bail no representation under a threat to national security! Dope is a big health issue and will likely bring on the next wave of COPD and lung cancer by all of the studies. So add poisoning Citizens to the charges, make it so they never have the opportunity again.