Court Records Shed Light On Illicit Marijuana’s Connection to Organized Crime

Newly unsealed court records shed light on illicit marijuana’s connection to organized crime.
We have written repeatedly about how marijuana’s legalization has actually emboldened drug cartels in many states. The DOJ has said organized crime from Mexico and China may be making millions of dollars from black market marijuana in states like California, Maine, New York, and Massachusetts.
Fox 23 News in Maine reports that newly unsealed court records shed light on the extent of the problem in rural areas of that state, writing:
The federal government started cracking down on illegal marijuana grows after a leaked federal memo, first obtained by the conservative Daily Caller and published August 2023, estimated that Maine had as many as 270 large-scale illegal marijuana grows connected to organized crime groups in China.
Thousands of pounds of marijuana have been seized in the years since. In July seven people were charged in what prosecutors describe as a multimillion-dollar illegal marijuana growing, human trafficking and money laundering operation in Maine and Massachusetts.
Authorities in Arkansas routinely seize illegal marijuana from Oklahoma and other states along Arkansas’ highways.
Some of these marijuana operations are tied to labor trafficking, violent crime, and foreign adversaries.
NPR has reported that illegal immigrants from China “are taking jobs at hundreds of cannabis farms springing up across the U.S.” Other correspondents have revealed how these illegal marijuana operations contribute to “modern day slavery on American soil.”
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.