Authored by Michael Clements via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A Department of Homeland Security investigation has resulted in the indictment of 51 defendants—including 29 Chinese nationals—on 67 counts of conspiracy to manufacture black-market marijuana in Oklahoma for distribution in Texas, Mississippi, Kansas, and North Carolina, among other locales.

Oklahoma drug enforcement agent Mike Garcia looks over rows of marijuana plants at an illegal grow facility in Ponca City, Okla, on Dec. 22, 2025. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

The defendants are from California, Florida, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Texas. Of the 51 indicted, 23 are fugitives, and 11 of the Chinese defendants have obtained permanent legal residence in the United States.

The April 21 indictment alleges that between March 2025 and April 2026, a network of growers, brokers, transporters, and distributors sent marijuana into the black market in Oklahoma and across the United States.

Mike Garcia, agent in charge of the 8th District Attorney’s Drug Task Force and Major Crime Unit, told The Epoch Times that illicit operators often buy old houses or undeveloped property and add buildings to grow marijuana.

Garcia said it was difficult to stay on top of the operations.

“You have to keep countering the illegal [operations] to balance it out. It’s a hard thing to do,” Garcia said.

According to a Department of Justice news release on April 27, marijuana was allegedly transported from grow operations to stash houses, and then to customers for further distribution.

Defendants reportedly split the proceeds and also concealed those proceeds by transporting large amounts of cash and using businesses to disguise the nature of the funds.

The conspiracy was carried out, in large part, with cell phones, and, as alleged in the indictment, law enforcement intercepted calls of two of the main conspirators, Li Shun Chen, 53, and Ying Wang, 45, both of Oklahoma City, according to the press release.

A federal grand jury handed down the indictment on April 21. The indictment also calls for the forfeiture of properties and assets used to generate or mask proceeds of the black-market transactions, including properties throughout Oklahoma.

A vernal pool polluted with chemicals used for growing illegal marijuana border an agricultural form in Ponca City, Okla., on Dec. 22, 2025. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

“Since 2021, when our agency created Marijuana Enforcement Teams (MET), we’ve proudly worked alongside our federal and state partners to target criminal organizations operating in Oklahoma,” Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control Director Donnie Anderson said in the release. “These partnerships have resulted in a dramatic drop in illegal marijuana farms within our state.”

Oklahoma legalized medical marijuana on June 26, 2018, in hopes that a 7 percent excise tax and state and local property taxes would finance education and infrastructure while creating new jobs.

Mark Woodward, public information officer for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, said organized criminals used this as an opportunity to get involved. He told The Epoch Times that up to 85 percent of the illegal grow facilities in Oklahoma have ties to Chinese organized crime.

“They used straw owners because so many of them came here during the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. “The first thing they wanted to do was try to look legitimate.”

The investigation was led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control along with multiple federal, state, and local agencies.

The case is being prosecuted in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.

Allan Stein contributed to this report.