The Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office executed search warrants at two unlicensed marijuana cultivation operations on Thursday — one in Farmingdale and one in Manchester — according to a press release.
The first warrant was executed on Thursday morning in Manchester following reports from neighbors that a strong marijuana smell was emanating from the building and that the building was being used as an illegal grow site.
Police arrived at the 399 Pond Road, Manchester, at roughly 9:40am, where they found an old farmhouse that had been converted into a large marijuana growing operation.
Police found the building empty of any individuals, but they discovered and seized 1,168 illegally cultivated marijuana plants.
Records show that the farmhouse was purchased by Yung C. Zhang, from Brighton, Massachusetts, in February 2021.
Zhang then paid off the entire remaining mortgage on March 16 of this year.
Property records show that, after Zhang paid off the mortgage, she sold it to another person, Hui Ming Lei, also of Brighton.
Records suggest that, shortly after transferring the property to Lei, Zhang purchased it back for $200,000, although the order of the transfers is unclear because the relevant paperwork was all filed on the same day, March 26.
The other search warrant was executed almost exactly an hour after the first at 10:39 am in Farmingdale.
Law enforcement arrived at 18 Sheldon Street to discover the building empty of either residents or marijuana plants.
Although no plants were seized, police found evidence that a large amount of marijuana had been recently harvested.
The sheriff’s department press release did not indicate how recently they believed the marijuana had been harvested.
The Maine Wire reached out to the Kennebec Sheriff’s office for more information, but they refused to provide any comments or any information that was not in the initial press release.
That building was purchased in Jan. 2020 by 53-year-old William Chen from California, who shortly after gave power of attorney to 67-year-old Bin Chen of Flushing, N.Y.
The January 2020 purchase date makes this location one of the oldest illegal marijuana grows raided across the state.
Although police raided 18 Sheldon Street, the press release makes no mention of any raid on 22 Sheldon street, which is also owned by Chen, and which is directly adjacent to the raided property, and shares a driveway with it.
The Maine Wire visited the location, however, and found evidence that 22 Sheldon had also been raided, including a garage door left open, but it remains unclear why this portion of the raid went unmentioned by the sheriff’s department.
In both raids, the Kennebec Sheriff’s department was aided by Maine’s Office of Cannabis Policy, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
The press release did not mention any assistance from local police departments in either Manchester or Farmingdale.
It does not appear that the Maine State Police assisted with the effort.
Some interesting things.
No word on the IRS actions on the owners.
Were folks tipped off. Lately no one is ever at home and they need a famer!
What is happening to the owners out of state owners homes
There is more to all this but the goverment is not saying
Set up one of these Chinese operations on my street, or in my town , it might get burned down .
County Sheriffs protect us from this nonsense .
State Police look the other way .
We need NEW LEADERSHIP in Augusta .
Dr Phil interviewed Trump and during that interview,he brought up Chinese buying our farmland. Mills does not seem to care that the Chinese government is buying up our land in Maine. Just like Biden does not care about all the land being bought up by the Chinese government around military bases
If these houses are unoccupied, I am surprised someone doesn’t put on a Mao suit and just go in and harvest all the plants for themselves.