A week after the national release of the documentary, High Crimes: The Chinese Mafia’s Takeover of Rural America in partnership with the Tucker Carlson News Network, Maine Wire Editor-in-Chief Steve Robinson appeared on Thursday’s episode of Carlson’s podcast.
[RELATED: Watch Now — High Crimes: The Chinese Mafia’s Takeover of Rural America…]
“If it weren’t for you, I don’t think anybody would have any idea what was happening in the state of Maine,” said Carlson told Robinson.
Carlson and Robinson discussed the purchase of hundreds of rural Maine houses by Chinese organized criminals – often with U.S. taxpayer-subsidized funds, who have used them to grow marijuana illegally.
The resulting marijuana is often produced using illegal, neurotoxic pesticides smuggled into the U.S. from China, Robinson told Carlson. Some of those chemicals are so toxic that even the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) does not allow their use as pesticides domestically.
Maine’s cannabis testing facilities do cannot test for the potentially deadly chemicals, and the pesticides remain in the rural houses even after the criminals leave, making what could be homes for Maine families unlivable.
[RELATED: Illegal Chinese Neurotoxins Are Coming to Maine’s Blackmarket Cannabis Grows: Maine Threat Brief…]
“Things are completely out of control in Maine, obviously,” observed Carlson.
The Maine Wire first brought the proliferation of Chinese organized crime across Maine to national attention in late 2023, and Robinson and The Maine Wire have continued to investigate and document it since then.
During the discussion, Carlson credited The Maine Wire as “the only journalism in the state.”
The wide-ranging discussion addressed how Maine’s cannabis legalization has made the state a prime target for the Chinese Mafia, who often operate unmolested by law enforcement.
“If you’ve got a French-Canadian last name, they’re going to stick the DOJ [Department of Justice] after you. They’re going to try to lock you in a cage. But if your last name is Wu, or Hwang, or Chen you don’t get the laws applied to you,” said Robinson.
They can undercut the prices of legal growers, harming their businesses and poisoning their customers. Chinese criminals can also transport their cheaply grown products out-of-state to sell on the black market in states where marijuana remains illegal.
They also discuss the impact of immigration, both legal and illegal, on creating a state environment apt for exploitation by organized communist-aligned criminals.
Robinson highlighted the conspicuous inaction on the part of Maine authorities to crackdown on the Chinese Mafia and the silence from Gov. Janet Mills (D-Maine) and much of the local media.
Notably, Gov. Mills’ brother, Paul Mills, was listed as the preparer of forms transferring ownership of a Chinese-operated illegal grow site in Corinna from Xiling Ou, 44, of Malden, Mass. to a Chinese national living in the country’s Guangdong Province.
“I am increasingly of the belief that there’s a lot of bribes being paid in the state. Small stuff to code enforcement officers, police departments. It’s really the only way that explains the lack of action,” said Robinson.
Carlson asked Robinson why he has decided to on the risks associated with exposing Chinese organized crime, and why he was willing to take that risk while none of the state’s other news outlets, or authorities, have taken action.
“I feel like I owe it to my state,” said Robinson.
“I feel like the people, my people, are being taken advantage of by powerful forces, that they’re unequipped to repel. We don’t have an immune system for this, and the only thing that I can do to fight back is to put a spotlight on it,” he added.
Watch the full High Crimes documentary here.
You can find the Maine Wire’s original reporting exposing Chinese organized crime in Maine here.
