Top House Republicans are requesting a briefing on the spread of illegal Chinese-backed marijuana farms across the United States from the Department of Homeland Security and the Drug Enforcement Agency, according to a letter first obtained by The Daily Wire.
The Friday letter from House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-TN), Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX), and Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) asks for a meeting with the DHS and DEA over what is being done about the proliferation of Chinese marijuana farms. Pfluger is the chair of the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence, and Higgins is the chair of the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement.
“The Committee on Homeland Security (Committee) is growing increasingly alarmed by the number of illicit Chinese-operated marijuana farms that have been seized by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies across the United States. Many of these illicit grow operations work in conjunction with transnational criminal organizations,” the letter, addressed to DHS Chair Alejandro Mayorkas and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram, said.
“Illicit Chinese-operated marijuana farms have been found across the country and pose significant risks to our nation’s security. First, illicit marijuana farms provide unregulated access for consumers to Schedule 1 substances and help provide additional revenue sources to transnational criminal organizations. Many of these operations have also been found to have labor conditions that are emblematic of human trafficking and forced labor practices. In addition, Chinese investors have financed some of these illegal operations, and these investments include cash payment for large swaths of land to conduct these operations,” the letter said, pointing out that lawmakers have raised red flags over large purchases of land by Chinese nationals.
The Republicans want a briefing schedule with the agencies by January 25. “This briefing should include, but not be limited to, information about the actions your agencies are conducting to monitor, investigate, and dismantle illicit Chinese-operated marijuana farms, as well as information about the links these illegal farms have to transnational criminal organizations and foreign entities,” they wrote.
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In the last several years, Chinese-backed marijuana operations have cropped up across the United States, including major drug busts in New Mexico and Maine, where Border Patrol has reportedly identified up to 270 illegal marijuana grow operations throughout Maine that are worth billions of dollars.
In November, a suspected Chinese national was arrested in rural Tennessee for allegedly operating a large marijuana growing operation out of an old church. A Daily Wire request for the police report on the arrest was denied due to an ongoing investigation into the operation.
House Republicans have been investigating efforts by China to influence the U.S. and spread propaganda throughout the country, including the operation of a Chinese police station in New York City.