A Homeland Security Investigations agent and Somerset County Sheriff’s deputy are pictured inside an illegal marijuana grow in St. Albans on May 30. Photo courtesy of Somerset County Sheriff’s Office The Somerset County Sheriff’s Office has been taking a “proactive stance” on its investigations into illegal marijuana growing operations with suspected ties to the country of China because the profits are believed to fund international fentanyl production, the sheriff said this week.
“I believe that the profits end up back in China,” Sheriff Dale Lancaster told the county’s Board of Commissioners on Wednesday. “Those profits are used to buy the chemicals to send to the cartel to make fentanyl. And fentanyl is killing our citizens.”
Illegal marijuana growing operations that have been busted across the state in recent months are suspected to be connected to “transnational criminal organizations” with ties to China , Darcie N. McElwee, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maine, said in May. However, McElwee did not mention the connection to fentanyl or say what other crimes the organizations are suspected of committing. Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid drug that officials say has been leading to overdoses and deaths across the U.S. in recent years. Related
Feds: Maine illegal marijuana grows may be tied to Chinese crime organizations
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, mentioned the theory that the illegal grows are connected to fentanyl production and distribution during questioning this week of FBI Director Christopher Wray. The marijuana growing operations appear to be connected to “Chinese organized crime,” Wray said at a Wednesday congressional hearing. But, like McElwee, he did not specify the nature of those crimes.
Wray called the marijuana grows in Maine an “attractive business proposition” for the groups behind them and agreed with Collins that “we’re seeing it in rural communities.”
According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, law enforcement across Maine had shut down more than 40 such growing operations as of early May. Authorities believe they have identified about 100 illegal grows in Maine.
Most have been in rural areas of Maine, including Franklin , Kennebec and Lincoln counties. Somerset County accounts for a […]
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