A Chinese woman from New York pleaded guilty on Monday to drug possession charges related to her operation of two illegal marijuana grow houses, the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department announced on Friday.
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Ying Chen pleaded guilty to possession of scheduled drugs and admitted to criminal forfeiture of $4,232.
She was sentenced to four years in prison, but all but 10 months were suspended, to be followed by three years of probation. She was also ordered to pay a measly $400 fine.
Her associate, Dun Eng, also living in New York, pleaded guilty to cultivating marijuana and criminal forfeiture of the same $4,232 in cash. He received a fully suspended five-year sentence followed by three years of probation and was issued a more substantial $10,000 fine.
Both Eng and Chen were charged in connection with the operation of two illegal marijuana grow houses.
On April 23, 2024, Piscataquis deputies executed a search warrant at 1052 Douty Hill Road in Sangerville, where they seized 1872 marijuana plants and 26 pounds of processed marijuana.
Evidence at that house led deputies to execute a search at 1765 Dexter Road in Dover-Foxcroft, where they located 1,300 plants.
Eng and Chen were among the four suspects arrested in 2024 in connection with illegal marijuana grows in Piscataquis County.
These courts obviously don’t understand the economics of the drug trade, if they thought these amounts are a deterrent