Sen. Collins Urges FBI to Aid Maine Crackdown on Marijuana Grow Houses
Q&A with Director Patel
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Q&A with Administrator Cole
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Washington, D.C. – At a hearing to review federal law agencies’ FY 2027 budget request, U.S. Senator Susan Collins, Chair of the Appropriations Committee, asked FBI Director Kash Patel and Drug Enforcement Administrator Terrance Cole to work closely with local law enforcement to prosecute the proliferation of illegal marijuana grow houses in Maine, often linked to money laundering and transnational crime.
Q&A with Director Patel
Sen. Collins: Director Patel, the proliferation of illegal marijuana grow houses connected to transnational criminal organizations originating in China is an ongoing problem in the state of Maine.
A DHS memo in 2023 estimated that Maine had as many as 270 Chinese-backed illegal marijuana operations, producing up to an estimated $4.3 billion in illicit revenues. Since then, thousands of pounds of illegal marijuana have been seized, primarily because of the tireless work of our Maine sheriffs and local law enforcement in Maine.
One other side effect of these illegal grow operations is that they usually destroy the houses in which they're located, which exacerbates the housing shortage in my state. Last year, you testified that the FBI would be sending more resources to the field, specifically to Maine, to combat these dangerous operations. I speak with Maine's sheriffs frequently about this problem, and they have reported some improvement in federal interest and participation.
For example, federal support has been critical to track money laundering, which is often linked to these operations, and in providing interpreter services to question individuals who are arrested, who often appear to have been trafficked and forced to work and live at these sites under hazardous conditions and don't speak English.
Bring me up to date on how the FBI is working to address these dangerous grow houses that are operating, not just in Maine, although we're a particular target, but in Oklahoma, California, and other states as well. It's essential that we have support from the FBI, from DEA, from Treasury. This has to be an all-of-government effort to close these operations down.
Director Patel: Senator, I couldn't agree with you more. And what we did since you and I last, well we spoke in between you last year and this hearing, but the HSTFs that we stood up, the Homeland Security Task Forces that we stood up in 59 locations across the country, co-led by DHS and the FBI have specifically targeted the marijuana grow house operations, especially tied to the Chinese.
There's two problems there. The Chinese nationals that are doing most of the criminal activity related to the grow houses have either severed ties or covered their tracks very well and have left us unable to determine their direct connectivity. I'm not saying it doesn't exist back to mainland China. That's kind of their M.O. on what they do, whether it's grow houses or any other criminal activity. So what we're doing with the HSTFs is reverse engineering those programs, taking down the grow houses, whether they're in Maine or Oklahoma, and tracing their banking records and their financial statements to see what we can do with the sanctions program overseas and shut down the financiers of these operations.
Sen. Collins: Do we know where the money is going to? Some law enforcement officers in Maine believe it's tied to the fentanyl trade.
Director Patel: Yes, ma'am. I believe, as these gentlemen will tell you, the money always goes back into the drug trafficking trade, into the drug traffickers’ pockets. And so we're not seeing, I'm not saying it doesn't happen, what we're not seeing yet is the money directly being shipped back over to mainland China and the CCP from these grow house operations.
Sen. Collins: I would encourage you to even increase your efforts even more because this remains a huge problem in Maine despite the valiant efforts of our sheriffs and local law enforcement.
Q&A with Administrator Cole
Sen. Collins: Administrator Cole, could you provide an update on DEA's efforts in this area?
Administrator Cole: Yes, Senator. And we continue to target those specific marijuana traffickers in Maine. As of recently, we had executed 44 search warrants in reference to Chinese underground marijuana houses, seized about 32,000 marijuana plants, over 500 pounds of marijuana.
And as we continue to trace the Chinese underground banking system where the funds are being fueled, as Director Patel had said, they're often using crypto as the instantaneous transfer of wealth. And what that requires our skilled investigators to do is to pull those findings off the blockchain, but to specifically look at one, two, and three tiers removed to help identify exactly where those illicit gains are going to. We continue to stay on the offensive.
Recently, with our Bangor, Maine, office, we've identified up to 250 potential locations where this is occurring. So, this is ongoing cooperation with our state, local, tribal partners and our federal partners, not only through our efforts, but the efforts of the Homeland Security task force that has come together. We will stay on the front foot. We will continue to target, investigate, and bring them to justice. Unfortunately, they are embedded, which requires long-term, complex conspiracy work to continue to eradicate not only the poison of the narcotics, but the environmental dangers that they bring to these grow houses.
So, we will continue. We will keep you posted, Senator. My team is happy to follow up with your team to give you progress and update reports.
Sen. Collins: Thank you. What I have found is a lot of time constituents who live near these houses know what's going on. I mean all of a sudden, the windows are covered, they see people going in and out at odd hours, they can smell in some cases the marijuana. These are not the licensed operations that are legal in Maine.
These individuals are not following any of the rules and they are operating illegally and causing tremendous harm. The fact that your latest reporting shows that there's still 250 houses, and that's probably an underestimate, it shows how incredibly serious this problem is. And again, think of the affordable housing crisis in Maine, and Oklahoma, and other states, these are houses that become uninhabitable because of the amount of black mold that is usually inside of them. So, I hope you will continue the task force effort, because this really requires an all of government approach. Thank you.
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