
A recent news release from the U.S. Department of Justice illustrates how black market marijuana operations continue to be a problem in states that have legalized the drug.
In a press release updated on January 6, the DOJ wrote,
OKLAHOMA CITY – JEFF WENG, 47, of China and Brooklyn, New York, has been sentenced to serve 120 months in federal prison for his role in a drug trafficking conspiracy, announced U.S. Attorney Robert J. Troester.
On June 6, 2023, a federal grand jury charged Weng and co-defendant Tong Lin, 29, with conspiracy to possess marijuana plants with intent to distribute. On January 18, 2024, after a two-day trial, a federal jury deliberated about an hour before it found Weng and Lin guilty of drug conspiracy.
Between December 2022 and May 2023, evidence at trial indicated that Weng managed a marijuana grow in Wetumka, Oklahoma, and licensed by the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority. Evidence showed that Lin managed matters when Weng was not present. One witness testified that, as part of their participation in the drug conspiracy, they drove delivery vans disguised as commercial vehicles, including one disguised as an “Amazon” delivery van, to the Wetumka Grow 10 to 15 times between December 2022 and March 31, 2023. The witness further testified that they picked up between 150 and 200 pounds of marijuana each time from the Wetumka Grow, and that Lin helped load the fake “Amazon” delivery van with marijuana. The witness testified they transported the marijuana to a stash house in Oklahoma City. Every Friday, the witness transported the marijuana from the stash house to a warehouse in Oklahoma City. There, they loaded more than 2,000 pounds of marijuana at a time into a semi-truck trailer, which transported the marijuana from Oklahoma to the East Coast. Over approximately seven months, the witness shipped upwards of 56,000 pounds of marijuana out of Oklahoma via semi-truck. Evidence also showed that law enforcement searched the Wetumka Grow in May 2023 and located 19,661 marijuana plants in various stages of growth, more than $100,000 of vacuum-sealed cash hidden in Weng’s closet attic space, and a firearm.
We have written again and again about how legalization in other states has actually emboldened drug cartels and organized crime who profit from marijuana.
Authorities in Arkansas routinely seize illegal marijuana from Oklahoma and other states along Arkansas’ highways.
Some of these illegal marijuana operations are tied to labor trafficking and violent crime, and some may actually have connections to foreign adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party.
NPR reports how illegal immigrants from China “are taking jobs at hundreds of cannabis farms springing up across the U.S.” Other correspondents have reported how these illegal marijuana operations contribute to “modern day slavery on American soil.”
Chinese organized crime is dominating black market marijuana in states where marijuana is legal.
The U.S. Department of Justice says Chinese drug cartels may be making millions of dollars from illegal marijuana in states like Maine, New York, Massachusetts, and elsewhere.
CBS News has highlighted how Chinese investment is driving illegal marijuana production across the U.S.
CBN reports that Chinese investors with “suitcases full of cash” are buying U.S. farmland to grow black market marijuana.
And CNN writes that “illegal pot production . . . provides a glimpse of a hidden world – one that mirrors a trend playing out not only in California, but in states such as Oklahoma, Oregon, New Mexico and Maine: groups of people with apparent ties to foreign countries – most notably China – producing weed in colossal volumes.”
All of this simply further underscores how marijuana may be many things, but “harmless” simply is not one of them.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.