Georgia law enforcement officials announced a massive bust in illegal marijuana plants on Tuesday and the arrest of four Chinese nationals associated with the operation.
The foreigners have been charged with felony marijuana manufacturing and felony possession of marijuana, according to a press release from the Georgia Department of Agriculture, which also revealed that they will face additional trafficking charges after the plants are dried and weighed. Investigators seized 11,153 plants with an estimated $22.3 million street value.
Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper, who appeared at a press conference with Pierce County Sheriff Ramsey Bennett to discuss the investigation, remarked that the illegal drug activity could be indicative of a broader criminal network across the country.
“This was a very sophisticated operation,” Harper commented. “Hundreds of thousands of dollars in infrastructure in the facility and, as the sheriff mentioned, ties back to New York and Houston, which is indicative of a national crime syndicate.”
Cannabis is considered a Schedule I drug at the federal level, while the substance is legal in thirty-eight states for medical use and twenty-four states for recreational use. Georgia only permits the medical use of CBD oil, which is commonly utilized for pain and anxiety relief.
The bust in Georgia comes one month after a federal jury convicted two other Chinese nationals on conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana plants. The individuals drove delivery vehicles disguised as benign commercial vans and transported marijuana outside of Oklahoma to other states in violation of their official license to grow the plant. Law enforcement found some 19,661 marijuana plants at various growth stages in their facility.
Chinese entities have served as primary enablers of fentanyl trafficking in recent years. One analysis from the Congressional Research Service noted that Chinese “fentanyl precursors and associated equipment, along with other synthetic drugs that may be mixed with fentanyl substances,” are targets for counternarcotics operations against the synthetic opioid.
Fentanyl, which is more than fifty times stronger than heroin, has increasingly been mixed with other drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine. More than four in ten Americans say they knew at least one person who passed away as a result of a drug overdose.
