A home’s high electricity usage, cardboard-covered windows and the smell of marijuana drew law enforcement’s attention to an off-the-beaten-path illicit grow in rural Maine.
The destruction of the home with a hidden grow and the seizure of nearly 40 pounds of processed marijuana was the latest example of what authorities describe as a years-long trend of foreign nationals exploit US state laws that have legalized cannabis for recreational or medical use to produce marijuana for illicit markets in the United States
The Drug Enforcement Administration is investigating international criminal organizations that operate illegal marijuana grow operations in about 20 states, including Maine, Attorney General Merrick Garland told the Senate Appropriations Committee last week, in response to a question raised by Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine.
A bipartisan group of 50 U.S. lawmakers, including Collins, wrote to Garland in February asking him to answer questions about China’s role in illegal marijuana operations in the country.
“We are deeply concerned by reports from across the country regarding Chinese nationals and organized crime growing marijuana on U.S. farmland,” they wrote.
Federal law enforcement officials say there are currently about 100 illicit grow operations in Maine, such as the one in Passadumkeag, about 60 miles north of Bangor, and about 40 search warrants have been served. issued since June.
In Passadumkeag, Xisen Guo, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China, was accused of turning the house into a high-tech illicit cultivation operation, according to court documents released this week.
Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office via AP
He was held without bail Friday on federal drug charges, making him the first person to be federally charged in such a case in Maine. A detention hearing is scheduled for Monday.
The Internal Revenue Service and Department of Homeland Security, along with the FBI, DEA and local law enforcement, are working together to get to the bottom of illicit cultivation operations in Maine, Garland said.
The state has legalized adult use of marijuana, but producers must be licensed by the state. The Maine Office of Cannabis Policy said Guo was operating an operation without a license, according to court documents.
Illicit cultivation operations in the United States began popping up several years ago. In 2018, U.S. authorities arrested a Seattle woman, conducted searches and seized thousands of marijuana plants during an investigation into an operation with ties to China. Oklahoma authorities learned that straw owners in China and Mexico were running illegal operations after marijuana was legalized by the state for medical purposes in 2018.
The legality of marijuana use and cultivation in these states tends to cover illegal cultivation operations, which might attract less attention, officials said. Marijuana is then marketed in states where it is illegal.
In Maine, U.S. Attorney Darcie McElwee said thwarting illegal grow operations with international connections was a priority for law enforcement, “and we will continue to mobilize every tool at our disposal in this effort, the optionally”.
Law enforcement knows the telltale signs.
Police focused on the Passadumkeag operation in part because of the home’s utility bills examined by deputies. After purchasing the home for $125,000 in cash, electricity usage increased from about $300 a month to nearly $9,000, according to court documents.
That’s the heat pumps, expensive lighting and other equipment needed to grow marijuana, investigators said. The home’s owner, a limited liability company, upgraded the electrical capacity to double what is found in a typical Maine home, documents show.
Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office via AP
Raymond Donovan, the former DEA chief of operations, told CBS News earlier in April that unusually high electric bills were one of the easiest ways to spot an illegal growing operation.
“These sites consume enormous amounts of electricity,” he told CBS News. “In order to accommodate that amount of energy, you need to upgrade your electrical infrastructure – and significantly so. We’re getting into specialty electrical equipment that is very rare and hard to find, especially in the state of Maine.”
Another illegal grow operation — where authorities found 2,600 plants and 100 pounds of already processed and packaged marijuana — was busted in Machias, Maine, in December of last year. He was spotted by authorities for the same reasons that drew attention to the Passadumkeag house.
Machias Police Chief Keith Mercier said the operation consumes about four to five times more energy than a normal residence.
“Once we subpoenaed the energy records from the power company, (it) was quite difficult to explain why anyone anywhere would use that amount of energy,” he said. he told CBS News. The Machias’ greenhouse also had closed windows and a strong odor.
Guo’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a call from The Associated Press. Two other people who were at the home at the time of the police raid in February have been released and have not been charged.
McElwee said law enforcement — from local and county police to the FBI and DEA — is starting to make progress with “dozens of operations” shut down in recent months.
“The possible involvement of foreign nationals using Maine properties to profit from unlicensed marijuana operations and interstate distributions clearly demonstrates the need for a strong and sustained federal, state and local effort to put end these operations,” she said.
Law enforcement officials also continue to investigate who is running the operations and where the profits are going, she said.
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