Drug trafficking experts have revealed that “these things are being exported abroad… for them, it’s an international business.”
A federal drug enforcement expert stated that Chinese organized crime groups linked to the CCP have seized control of about 75% of the marijuana black market in the United States.
The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program is an anti-drug enforcement initiative operated by the United States Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). Rob Roggeveen, the National Deputy Coordinator of the marijuana impact team under the HIDTA program, disclosed to the Epoch Times that the illegal marijuana trade in the US has seen exponential growth and is estimated to be an industry with an annual turnover of up to $300 billion.
Roggeveen told the Epoch Times, “These things are being exported abroad, whether it’s to Canada, France, or the UK. For them, it’s an international business.”
“They’re not just growing marijuana in the US to meet domestic demands – they are expanding to the international market.”
In states like California, the price of a pound of marijuana can range from $450 to $500 or even lower, while in countries where marijuana is illegal and penalties are stricter, the price of marijuana can see an “exponential increase,” ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 per pound.
He mentioned that traditionally, Mexican drug cartels would clandestinely grow outdoor marijuana on public lands such as national forests in the US. However, in recent years, with some states legalizing and reducing penalties for illegal marijuana cultivation for medical and recreational use, the influence of Chinese crime syndicates has boldly entered the scene.
“Ten years ago, besides Mexican drug cartels, you hardly ever saw any other drug trafficking groups smuggling marijuana, and it would usually be smuggled over the border. However, the dynamics changed, and the control of marijuana trade shifted from Mexican drug cartels to CCP-backed forces,” Roggeveen stated.
He further mentioned that the transition and collaboration between Mexican and Chinese drug trafficking groups are speculated. In a hearing of the House Homeland Security subcommittee on September 18, it was suggested that this cooperation might involve the CCP providing cheap money laundering services to Mexican drug cartels.
Former DEA agent Christopher Urben, who now works for the global investigative company Nardello & Co based in New York, informed the committee that the CCP is aiding Mexican drug cartels with money laundering services and utilizing Chinese-controlled applications like WeChat and encrypted currencies for laundering.
According to the Department of the Treasury’s latest National Money Laundering Risk Assessment (NMLRA, 02/2024), Chinese money laundering organizations have now become major players in professional money laundering activities in the US and globally.
Urben called for stronger actions, including prosecuting organized crime from China and Mexico under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Originally legislated in 1970 to combat the Italian Mafia, the RICO Act has been proposed to address present-day criminal organizations.
Experts at the congressional hearing remarked that Chinese organized crime groups allegedly associated with the CCP pose a national security threat to the US.
Donnie Anderson, the director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, testified that some illegal marijuana cultivation sites are located near critical infrastructure such as military bases and oil pipelines.
“I believe the CCP can still access these places, especially through the so-called ‘police stations’ overseas to control overseas Chinese.” Anderson commented.
While Oklahoma laws require marijuana business owners to be residents of the state for at least two years, Anderson noted that nearly all marijuana cultivation operations run by Chinese individuals evade this requirement through fraud and false ownership, using consultancy firms, real estate agents, and attorneys to set up shell companies.
Anderson stated that investigations have documented evidence indicating that these marijuana businesses transfer funds to Chinese banks and have ties to enterprises affiliated with the CCP regime.
Paul Larkin from The Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, told the committee that considering China’s rigorous surveillance system, it is hard to believe that the CCP is unaware of criminal activities undertaken by Chinese organized crime groups in the US.
He stressed that there is sufficient indirect evidence to suggest CCP’s “assistance to organized crime,” which could lead the US Supreme Court to convict the CCP for involvement in such activities.
Larkin revealed that in states where medical and recreational marijuana has been legalized, many marijuana businesses are operated by Chinese organized crime groups. He emphasized that both the People’s Republic of China and the CCP are well aware of these situations but tacitly allow them.
Larkin later informed the Epoch Times that any direct evidence implicating the CCP would be top-secret and not disclosed to the public.
He expressed that the federal government has various tools to combat illegal marijuana issues, including the RICO Act, but whether they are willing to act remains uncertain. Larkin hinted that many elected officials in the US are sidestepping the marijuana issue to retain support from young voters.
“In New York City, numerous marijuana shops operate without compliance. Their sheer number overwhelms law enforcement, and local prosecutors appear hesitant to prosecute them,” he remarked.
Apart from invoking the RICO Act, Larkin proposed that the Department of Justice could arrest and indict individuals involved in crimes unrelated to marijuana, like fraud and “forced labor or slavery.”
Roggeveen mentioned that investigators have discovered a significant number of illegal immigrants being victims of human trafficking, hiding in squalid camps, living in tents, run-down trailers, and makeshift shacks but are reluctant to speak up due to concerns for their safety and the safety of their loved ones in the US or China.
“These trafficking groups treat people like trash, it’s terrifying,” he said.
Roggeveen noted that the black market for marijuana in California has “circumvented the legal market.” He pointed out that legal marijuana growers who obtain licenses, pay taxes, and abide by laws are frustrated because the “illegal market is massive… and the scale is so immense that it’s hard to regulate effectively.”
Under the current administration, the Department of Justice is looking into the RICO Act as it has been effective in targeting drug cartel leaders in the past. Those individuals don’t view themselves as drug lords but rather see themselves as “Fortune 500-style” CEOs.
“This is how the CCP operates, the Russian Mafia operates, the crime groups in Thailand, and Laos operate – they all function like organized crime groups,” he shared.
Given the strained law enforcement resources, the DEA provides funding to states and local agencies for confiscating illegal marijuana within their jurisdictions. Roggeveen, who once led drug investigations at the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office in Southern California, including investigations into illegal marijuana, stated, “Our Sheriff’s Department received a considerable amount of such funds, and this money positively contributed to our team’s efforts in eradicating illegal marijuana.”
Despite promises from politicians that legalizing marijuana would eliminate the black market, in California, drug traffickers see this policy as an opportunity to engage in illegal activities under the cover of legal operations and have infiltrated almost every region of the state.
“Whether it’s Mexican drug cartels or the CCP’s influence, they have entered these areas and started growing marijuana,” he stated, adding that they are now shipping significant amounts of black-market marijuana to various parts of the US, particularly to higher-priced markets like New York and Florida.
In states where marijuana for medical and recreational purposes is legalized, enforcement agencies have shifted resources away from marijuana enforcement. Prosecutors are not pursuing cases, and penalties for illegal cultivation have been lightened.
This gap has led drug trafficking groups from China, Laos, Thailand, Mexico, and Russia, along with other organized crime syndicates, to flood into these states.
“These states are being completely overwhelmed,” he remarked.
“Police are now working hard to chase the drug trafficking groups, but it’s like putting a band-aid on a sucking chest wound. The amount of drugs we seize is minuscule compared to the actual quantity of drugs in circulation,” he added.
According to the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, since Oklahoma legalized medical marijuana cultivation and sales in 2018, the state has become a major hub for the US marijuana black market.
Mark Woodward, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, told the Epoch Times that during the peak of the pandemic at the end of 2022, most marijuana farms in the state that obtained licenses through fraud were connected to Chinese owners or operators.
“We still see some farms linked to Mexican, Armenian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Russian, and even Italian Mafia, but I believe, at the height of marijuana black market farms in Oklahoma, 85% of them were connected to Chinese organized crime groups,” he stated.
Woodward confirmed that in March 2024, Chen Wu, a Chinese male allegedly linked to Chinese organized crime, visited a cultural association suspected of having ties to organized crime twice with the Chinese Consul General Zhu Di from the Chinese Embassy in the US and contacted known criminals. However, Woodward mentioned he couldn’t disclose further details.
Indirectly, officials linked to the CCP have denied any involvement in Chinese organized crime in the US and illicit marijuana cultivation, stating China enforces a “zero tolerance” drug policy, which all overseas Chinese citizens must comply with.
Although 40 states in the US have legalized marijuana in some form, Oklahoma has become a hotbed for illegal marijuana cultivation due to being an “open state” during the global COVID-19 pandemic when other states, including California, were under lockdown.
Woodward highlighted that lax laws, cheap land, low permit costs, and easy money-making opportunities led Chinese marijuana growers to succumb to these temptations, flooding the state with the assistance of unscrupulous businesses, sparking a full-blown black market for marijuana overnight.
Following this, the state indicted several lawyers and brokers who were aiding illegal growers in contacting nominal owners for licenses in return for rewards. These “ghost owners” signed legal documents claiming 75% ownership, while the properties were actually owned by Chinese citizens. In one case, the same person was registered as the owner of almost 300 marijuana farms in Oklahoma.
“Some law firms…advertise on websites in Cantonese, Mandarin, and Fujian dialects because they know that Chinese control the marijuana black market,” Woodward mentioned.
Oklahoma gradually turned into a hub for cheap and high-quality illegally grown marijuana exports.
“This is a perfect storm,” Woodward said.
In 2023, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics intercepted a semi-truck heading to New Jersey and New York loaded with 7,000 pounds of black-market marijuana valued at $28 million. Woodward stated that it was likely that every night from 2021 to 2024, multiple semi-trucks carrying illegal marijuana departed from Oklahoma City, leaving the state.
Based on tracking system data, the state cultivated around 87 million pounds of marijuana in a year. However, the documented amount of marijuana sold by the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics was approximately 1.9 million pounds.
“This means there are over 85 million pounds of marijuana unaccounted for, and we know that those are untaxed black-market marijuana,” Woodward said.
He mentioned that the number of farms in Oklahoma increased from 2,000 in 2019 to around 8,400 by the end of 2022, with many farms associated with organized crime and “black-market channels.”
Woodward stated that the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics had shut down nearly 7,000 marijuana farms and currently, around 1,350 remain in the state.
By the end of 2022, the state had 2,200 medical marijuana dispensaries, and over 380,000 persons (about 10% of the Oklahoma population) possess medical marijuana patient cards.
Starting August 26, 2022, Oklahoma suspended issuing new permits to pharmacies, cultivators, and processors, with the suspension set to end on August 1, 2026.
According to the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, commercial cultivation permits in Oklahoma range from $2,500 to over $50,000, depending on the scale of cultivation.
“Some illegal growers in Oklahoma say they employ Chinese illegal labor, with the cultivation cost per pound of marijuana as low as $100. These growers cut costs, and if a pound costing $100 in agricultural products is transported to Flushing, New York, it can sell for $3,500 to $4,000,” Woodward mentioned.
He shared that as Oklahoma began closing illegal cultivation points, agents from ICE and other law enforcement agencies participated in joint operations, sometimes apprehending illegal immigrants.
Woodward revealed that the “basic survival rule” for illegal growers is to “act like they’re legal,” be a “good neighbor,” and obtain cultivation permits so they don’t attract suspicion and can “operate in broad daylight.”
However, in 2002, a Chinese male named Chen Wu allegedly connected to Chinese organized crime went to an illegal marijuana plantation about 55 miles northwest of Oklahoma City on a 10-acre site and demanded $300,000. When farmworkers failed to pay the money owed to the criminal organization on the spot, Wu fired a gun.
“He ended up killing four people and injuring a fifth who managed to escape,” Woodward shared.
Wu fled to Florida and was arrested on Miami Beach two days later. He told law enforcement he feared returning to Oklahoma as he was concerned about being killed by the “Mafia.” In February 2024, he pleaded guilty to the murder charges and was sentenced to life in prison.
The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics claimed that the illegal plantation site obtained a medical marijuana permit through fraudulent means, and individuals associated with the site were subsequently arrested.
During the congressional hearing, committee chairman and Republican federal representative from Oklahoma, Josh Brecheen, remarked that the witness testimonies clearly show that the CCP is engaged in “organized attacks” on the US and called for stronger federal law enforcement efforts to combat this “collusion” with organized crime.
“Whether through their drug trafficking networks, cyber-attacks, or aiding Mexican drug cartels, they have waged an asymmetric war against this nation, and now is the time for us to push back using all tools and resources at our disposal,” Brecheen stated.
He emphasized that the US allowing foreign criminal organizations, possibly linked to the CCP, has enabled them to establish complex networks, posing a national security threat and surpassing the detection capabilities of state and local law enforcement agencies.
“The weapons arsenal of some foreign citizens operating these cultivation spots is even more sophisticated than that of local law enforcement officers,” Brecheen explained.