Last week saw more illegal Chinese marijuana grow sites being busted in Somerset and Franklin Counties.
Somerset Sheriff Dale Lancaster continued his crusade against the Chinese weed operations in his county with a bust in Ripley which followed shortly after a large bust in Harmony.
[RELATED: BREAKING: Somerset County Sheriff, DEA Bust Major Triad Weed Hub in Harmony, Maine…]
“These investigations are complicated, and they have been months in development,” said Sheriff Lancaster, “There appears to be a pattern of operations at each one of these locations.”
On April 17, one day after a major bust in Harmony which led to the seizure of 3,400 plants and the arrest of one man, Dongming Liao, the Somerset Sheriff’s Department made another bust on Ellms Rd. in Ripley.
Police discovered that the residence had been renovated to allow for the needs of a massive illegal marijuana cultivation operation.
Law enforcement seized 1,100 marijuana plants, along with 100 lbs of cultivated marijuana.
They also found drug paraphernalia, but did not make any arrests, as the property was empty at the time of the raid.
On the same day, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department, along with the U.S. Border Patrol and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) raided a farmhouse on Route 133 in Jay.
Law enforcement did not reveal the exact address of the farmhouse, nor did they specify how much marijuana was seized.
Authorities did, however, refer to the farmhouse as a “massive marijuana grow” along with providing a picture of the interior of the house.
No one was discovered in the house at the time of the raid.
Although sheriff’s departments have been raiding Chinese weed farms across the state, hundreds of locations remain in operation, and many criminals involved in the enterprise remain at large.
In many cases, the Chinese nationals arrested in connection with the grow sites are released when their colleagues pay the relatively low cash bails set for their release.
The criminals then fail to appear for their court dates and are free to return to their illegal activities.
Currently, only one person has faced federal charges in connection with the illegal operation which has infiltrated rural Maine.
[RELATED: TRIAD WEED: First Chinese National Faces Federal Charges for Weed Operation in Maine…]
67-year-old Xisen Gou, arrested during a February raid on a grow site in Passadumkeag, is currently being held without bail and faces federal drug trafficking charges.
