FBI Busts Chinese Nationals For Multi-Million Dollar Drug Ring, Exploiting Immigration System

The FBI busted a multi-million dollar marijuana trafficking scheme run by Chinese nationals, the Justice Department said Tuesday. 

Seven Chinese nationals were charged over an alleged marijuana conspiracy operating out of Massachusetts and Maine. Investigators said that the operation, which began in January 2020, generated millions of dollars by distributing kilogram-sized quantities of marijuana in bulk.

“This case pulls back the curtain on a sprawling criminal enterprise that exploited our immigration system and our communities for personal gain,” said U.S. Attorney Leah Foley. “These defendants allegedly turned quiet homes across the Northeast into hubs for a criminal enterprise – building a multi-million-dollar black-market operation off the backs of an illegal workforce and using our neighborhoods as cover. That ends today.”

Those charged are 39-year-old Jianxiong Chen, 36-year-old Yuxiong Wu, 38-year-old Dinghui Li, 35-year-old Dechao Ma, 35-year-old Peng Lian Zhu, 35-year-old Hongbin Wu, and 47-year-old Yanrong Zhu. Yanrong Zhu “remains a fugitive,” while the others were all taken into federal custody, according to the DOJ. 

They are all charged with conspiracy to manufacture, distribute, and possess with intent to distribute marijuana, and many face money laundering charges as well. Chen, who investigators say was the mastermind behind the operation, is also charged with smuggling aliens into the United States. 

Illegal marijuana seized: DOJ

FBI agent Ted Docks said that Chen, who lived in Braintree, Massachusetts, a city about 12 miles south of Boston, smuggled Chinese nationals over the Mexican border and forced them to work at marijuana grow houses to pay off the smuggling fees and get their passports back. 

In addition to Braintree, there were grow houses in the Massachusetts cities of Melrose and Greenfield. 

In October 2024, investigators recovered more than $270,000 in cash, a Porsche, and multiple Chinese passports and other identification documents inside a safe at Chen’s house in Braintree. Investigators also seized more than 109 kilograms of marijuana, nearly $200,000 in cash, and a $65,000 Rolex watch at the homes of other alleged conspirators. 

Massachusetts home at center of Chinese marijuana ring: DOJ.

In the last several years, Chinese-backed marijuana operations have cropped up across the United States, and there have been major drug busts in states like New Mexico and Maine. In Maine alone, Border Patrol has reportedly identified at least 270 illegal marijuana grow operations that are worth billions of dollars.

Congressional lawmakers have also launched inquiries into the issue, saying that the operations pose significant national security risks.