Seven Chinese nationals are facing federal charges for allegedly running a multi-million-dollar illegal pot empire hidden in quiet neighborhoods across Massachusetts and Maine — complete with smuggled labor, secret grow houses, and mountains of cash.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston, the accused turned suburban homes into unlicensed marijuana grow operations, then laundered the profits into real estate, Rolexes, and luxury cars.
SHAMELESS PLUG: A secret drug empire backed by China is taking over small towns across America—now exposed in this shocking documentary, only on the Tucker Carlson Network. Filmmaker Steve Robinson has doggedly pursued the story throughout Maine, exposing hundreds of illegal drug houses and the devastating toll the foreign criminal conspiracy has taken on rural America.
“This case pulls back the curtain on a sprawling criminal enterprise that exploited our immigration system and our communities for personal gain,” U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley said Tuesday. “That ends today.”
Authorities say ringleader Chen, 39, of Braintree, Mass., smuggled Chinese nationals into the U.S., forced them to work at grow houses, and withheld their passports until they paid off their smuggling debts. He’s also charged with laundering millions in drug money and facilitating illegal immigration.
Jianxiong Chen and six others — Yuxiong Wu, 36; Dinghui Li, 38; Dechao Ma, 35; Peng Lian Zhu, 35; Hongbin Wu, 35; and Yanrong Zhu, 47 — were indicted on conspiracy charges to manufacture and distribute marijuana. Most also face money laundering counts. Yanrong Zhu remains on the run.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
The group allegedly operated a web of marijuana grow houses in towns including Braintree, Melrose, and Greenfield, Mass., as well as in Maine. Federal agents say they communicated through a regional network dubbed the “East Coast Contact List,” linking Chinese growers and distributors across the Northeast.
When feds raided Chen’s Braintree home in October 2024, they say they found over $270,000 in cash hidden in a Porsche and a safe stuffed with Chinese passports and IDs. Authorities say Chen used the home as a hub to receive both marijuana and drug money from the ring’s operations.
Another raid that month at Ma and Zhu’s homes turned up more than 109 kilograms of weed, nearly $200,000 in cash, and a gold Rolex still wearing its $65,000 price tag.
Agents also seized over 50 kilos of pot from Zhu’s Melrose home and grabbed $36,900 in cash during a June 2023 traffic stop involving Hongbin Wu and Yanrong Zhu near a Greenfield grow house. Wu, in a twist fit for a movie, was wearing a T-shirt that read “money laundering” when he was busted.
“This takedown highlights the need for a sustained law enforcement effort … to shut down and thoroughly investigate the organized criminal enterprises behind these unlicensed and illegal operations,” said FBI Boston chief Ted E. Docks.
The defendants face a slew of serious charges: up to 20 years for money laundering conspiracy, up to 10 years for individual laundering counts, and a minimum of three years for alien smuggling.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Pohl and is part of “Operation Take Back America,” a national crackdown on transnational criminal organizations.
Read more of Robinson’s reporting on Chinese organized crime in New England
Triad Weed: How Chinese Marijuana Grows Took Over Rural Maine
Maine Gov. Janet Mills’ Brother Helped Transfer Nine-Acre Black Market Cannabis Grow to Chinese National “Mother” Living in Guangdong Province: Triad Weed
How the U.S. Treasury Department Helps Chinese Organized Crime Transform American Homes Into Drug Dens
The Restaurateur: Bangor Business Owner Linked to Illicit Marijuana Grows
The Triad’s Electrician: Meet the 87-Year-Old “Frontman” for Chinese Marijuana Grows in Maine
Three Chinese Nationals Caught Sneaking Into Maine from Canada Amid Asian Organized Crime Epidemic
Illegal Chinese Neurotoxins Are Coming to Maine’s Blackmarket Cannabis Grows: Maine Threat Brief
