China flies high weather balloons over the United States, sends its stealth submarines off our coast to surveil our military preparedness, buys large swaths of US land often near strategic military installations and now is illegally growing more than an estimated $4.37 billion in marijuana in Maine. A federal memo, obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) is reporting that there are 270 suspected Chinese illegal operations in the state. Penobscot County Sheriff Troy Morton told the DCNF that “There are hundreds of these operations occurring throughout the state. It’s upsetting to those who live near these operations, and even those who are following Maine laws and procedures.”
The July 2023 federal memorandum was distributed throughout the US Border Patrol. It is challenging for law enforcement to halt these operations. Many of the Chinese growers either have asylum claims in the country or have resident status, making it challenging to remove them from the United States, according to an anonymous federal law enforcement source who was not authorized to speak publicly about the threat. He told DNCF that he thinks “…the Chinese are taking advantage of rural areas, like Maine, to produce marijuana to sell across state lines and funnel the profits back to China.
According to the National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA), circa 2020, “… the funds are likely used for other criminal activity… or sent to China.” The Chinese drug smuggling route runs the length of the I-95 corridor from Miami, Florida, to New Brunswick, Maine. The corridor is linked to many states and also handles bulk cash, illegal narcotics, and illegal aliens.
Nationwide law enforcement believes that the Chinese Maine operations are connected to approximately 749 properties nationwide and with individuals with direct connections to both Maine and Washington, according to the Grays Task Force. The federal memorandum included a “heat map” indicating the locations of the Chinese sites and indicates that the production is spread across large areas of Maine.
Derek Maltz, former head of the DEA’s Special Operations Division told DCNF that “There’s no deterrence… Criminals are maters a taking advantage of the vulnerabilities.” The Chinese operations are also suspected of collaborating with the Mexican drug cartels. Maltz says that “They take case from the cartels in American, and they buy these properties, and they do these investments with cash from the Mexican cartels in our own country. This is part of their laundering scheme.”
When the illegal Chinese operations work with the cartels, they are providing an important service by picking up the cash and doing the money transfers. They often use banking apps and use the cash to buy American real estate or to commit additional crimes. The federal memorandum stated that the illegal grow operations are extremely profitable as they trade in an untaxed product.
One of the Chinese-owned properties alone can with 100 marijuana plants, in three cycles a year, generate $16.2 million in sales, according to the NDTA. Sheriff Morton admits that Maine has few resources to combat the Chinese drug trade. He points out that “Regardless of where the individuals are from, the true problem involves conflicting state and federal laws. We also have little to no oversight, allowing for [Chinese] criminal activity to occur at a high degree.” While the recent revelations about the Chinese Maine operations are significant, the main drug China produces for the US market is fentanyl.
US Representative David Trone of Maryland says that US authorities report that China remains the primary source of the precursor chemicals, which are then processed and manufactured into synthetic opioids by Mexican drug cartels to bring into the United States. According to Trone, “99 percent of the fentanyl is coming from precursor drugs from China, and then it’s manufactured by two cartels, the Jalisco and Sinaloa Cartels, and they’re the ones that are bringing it across the border.” Most of fentanyl is mass-produced in Mexico using chemicals from China. It is then pressed into pills or mixed with other counterfeit pills made to look like Xanax, Adderall, or oxycodone and sold to American unaware buyers.
Anders Corr, publisher of the Journal of Political Risk, says “China has played a key role in flooding America with fentanyl, and the regime is now weaponizing the drug issue against the United States.” The DEA does not currently have sufficient resources to address the expanded threat from China. Almost 64% of US deaths from drugs are the result of fentanyl drug abuse. The 2021 US death toll from fentanyl drug overdoses doubled the number in 2019. This is yet another critical arena where China is conducting war with the United States.
Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept.