Maine Sen. Angus King is concerned that the Chinese Communist Party, which rules the People’s Republic of China, is coordinating with the Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) that operate hundreds of illegal drug trafficking sites throughout Maine.
In comments to WGME, King, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was worried about the intelligence collection that Chinese drug traffickers may be engaging in on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“In many ways, there’s no such thing as a private business in China,” King told WGME. “Every business has a link to the government, and that’s one of the reasons I’m so concerned about what they’re doing, because all the data they’re collecting and information they have, it could, and probably is, going to the Chinese Communist Party.”
Kings comments follow the revelation, published exclusively by the Maine Wire, of pro-CCP paraphernalia at an illicit marijuana growing operation located less than a mile from a U.S. Army Reserve facility in Dexter.
The existence of the sprawling network of Chinese-controlled drug trafficking sites in Maine was first disclosed when immigration reporter Jennie Taer published a leaked Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo.
That memo indicated Asian TCOs have developed a network of more than 270 illegal cannabis growing facilities.
According to the DHS memo, the proceeds of those funds are used to finance human trafficking, fentanyl trafficking, and other activities of the Chinese Communist Party.
Since the memo’s publication, the Maine Wire has identified the addresses, owners, and operators of hundreds of illegal marijuana growing operations — the majority of which continue to function as illegal drug trafficking sites.
In April, the Democrat-controlled state legislature shot down a bill that would have enhanced Maine law enforcement’s ability to root out the TCO operations.
[RELATED: Maine House Votes Down Bill Aimed at Fighting Transnational Organized Crime…]
However, the Biden-appointed U.S. Attorney for Maine, Darcie McElwee, has recently ramped up federal efforts to crack down on the organized crime networks, including taking steps to seize four properties involved in the criminal conspiracy.
Gov. Janet Mills (D) has been silent on topic, even as Maine sheriffs have executed more than three dozen search warrants on properties connected to Asian TCOs.
Mills has not, for example, commented publicly on the fact that her eldest brother, Paul H. Mills, served as the title attorney for a real estate transaction that transferred an illegal marijuana grow in Corinna to the ownership of a Chinese national living in China.
Click to read more of the Maine Wire’s Triad Weed investigative series
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="28261 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=28261">3 Comments
Headline should read: Doddering Old Fool Has Unexpected Moment of Lucidity!
really Angus? No Kidding.
Where is the DEA in all of this (state or fed)?
Rhetorical question, but what do you think would happen if one of us “locals” got busted with an unlicensed grow of 3,000 plants and hundreds of pounds of processed weed?