Posted on 09/20/2025 5:25:55 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Marijuana is China’s gateway to infiltrating the US.
Three witnesses delivered testimony before Congress this week, warning that Chinese nationals are dominating the illicit marijuana trade in the US, with vast criminal networks tied to execution-style killings, sex trafficking, money laundering, prostitution, and fentanyl distribution. In Oklahoma alone, Chinese organized crime groups have turned black-market marijuana into a $153 billion industry. All three witnesses described the situation as a national security threat influenced by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Not only are these networks scattered across the country, nearly in plain sight, but some locations appear to double as facilities for espionage.
The Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability held a hearing titled “Invasion of the Homeland: How China is Using Illegal Marijuana to Build a Criminal Network Across America.” First to give a statement was Donnie Anderson, director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics. He prefaced his testimony by saying the information he presented was “only a fraction of the broader threat we face.” He went on to say Oklahoma’s loose marijuana laws have “led to a staggering oversupply,” which has “inadvertently opened the door to international organized crime.”
“[T]he impact of black-market marijuana in Oklahoma is unlike anything I have encountered in my career,” said Anderson. These Chinese-operated grow sites hide behind fraudulent licenses and “straw ownership.” Americans are paid large sums to purchase grow sites in their names and to keep quiet. Anderson discovered an instance where one Oklahoma resident owned roughly 300 farms. Chinese nationalists manage these through shell companies facilitated by consulting firms, real estate agents, and attorneys.
“And this isn’t just an Oklahoma problem,” said Anderson, “it’s global. Chinese nationals are doing similar things in Latin America and the Caribbean, where they are building infrastructure, even roads, as part of larger investments...
(Excerpt) Read more at libertynation.com ...
Chimps don’t smoke pot, they do like a couple of drinks though.
I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around a drug business that big in Oklahoma. $153 billion over how long? Where do they get numbers like this supposedly accurate to three significant figures?
I’d buy that the Chinese mobs control a substantial fraction of an $18-44B market, but not $153B in a state the size of OK.
The same problem in Maine, especially Penobscot County, where Chinese pot farms were placed inside 100+ year old homes.
Outrageous.
Look for Tucker Carlson’s interview of a Maine journalist in this story. Those 100 year old homes need extensive electrical upgrading. Their M.O. is to have a nice English-speaking Chinese couple visit in person and fill out the paperwork necessary for the home.
China’s revenge on the West for the Opium Wars.
No it isn’t.
“Chinese nationalists manage these through shell companies facilitated by consulting firms”
Pretty sure they mean Chinese nationals, as in communists.
Editors.
But we don't.
Enterprising !
Does it matter who is growing it?
A staggering oversupply should mean very low prices.
But it is a weed.
Not sure how any criminal enterprise can be thriving when legal. Grows are avaialable. That implies excessive restrictions on the legal grow operations.
A push for bigger, more draconian government? Behind the dreaded CCP threat ?!? When has prohibition ever worked?
“ Larkin advocated against medical and recreational marijuana laws, claiming they have not decreased the black-market for cannabis as so many reform advocates had expected. Not to mention, the states with loose cannabis laws are the ones most targeted. He urged the government to build a legal case and said the US conspiracy law could help to prosecute the criminal networks.”
How ironic - ‘Liberty America’. They should rename it.
“ A 501(c)(3) committed to restoring, strengthening and preserving the vision of a free America by applying our founding principles to the issues of today.”
I guess “Opium Dens” will be the next big craze...
*
Druggies have them already. They call them "shooting galleries."
Yeah, it matters.
Many of them are illegal Chinese. The pot gets shipped to Boston and elsewhere for billions of dollars in revenue to these Chinese groups. Some of that money goes to human trafficking.
Enterprising? They are NOT paying taxes; legal pot farmers do in fact pay. Legal growers have to follow regulations; not these Chinese illegal growers.
Also, makes it harder for Americans to buy homes, because these houses are used to grow marijuana.
The Chinese install heat pumps not to heat the homes, but to cool them off; heat pumps can be used as air conditioners.
The grow lights could damage the plants so the air near them has to be cooled.
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