Chinese state-backed grow networks have created a $153 billion black market in Oklahoma alone, with suspicious activity reported near the nation’s largest munitions plant.

By Sam Cooper | The Bureau

In Brief

WASHINGTON — In chilling testimony to Congress, law enforcement officials warned that Chinese organized crime groups, operating with Beijing’s support, have transformed America’s marijuana boom into a $153 billion black-market industry in Oklahoma alone. [Read the original report at the publisher’s website here].

Suggesting that this Chinese crime wave — largely unrecognized by the American public — is part of a trillion-dollar enterprise embedded in multiple states, legislators heard that the epicenters include Oklahoma, Maine, California, and Michigan. Thousands of Chinese-run farms have proliferated under lax state laws, with workers smuggled across the Mexican border and forced into slave-like conditions. Properties are acquired through real estate and legal fraud, while the operations feed a nationwide criminal network tied to the Chinese Communist Party, fentanyl trafficking, weapons smuggling, prostitution, and global money laundering.

Experts called for the establishment of a federal task force utilizing the RICO Act to combat this sophisticated criminal network, which is deeply intertwined with other illicit activities, including fentanyl trafficking and money laundering. The hearing underscored the urgent need for a coordinated response to address the extensive reach of these operations across multiple states and their implications for U.S. security.