A complex network of Chinese-run black market marijuana operations is enveloping the U.S. — and Michigan is caught in the web.

Though the chain of command is murky, politicians, attorneys and law enforcement who spoke with MLive believe the multi-layered networks originate in mainland China — possibly with the knowledge and backing of its government.

The owners target states with lax or confusing marijuana laws and enforcement, or with legal frameworks ripe for manipulation, most publicly in Oklahoma, where Department of Narcotics spokesman Mark Woodward said there’s “clear evidence” of connections to the Chinese Communist Party.

Similar operations have recently been uncovered in Michigan, where state police seized 13,400 cannabis plants from an illicit grow in Lake County’s Baldwin in July and 5,000-plus plants from a warehouse in Iosco County’s Alabaster Township.

Each of the nine people arrested were born in China, some now American citizens, others with green cards or asylum status, defense attorneys told MLive.

At least four are now in custody of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or face immigration detention orders.

Two attorneys representing eight of the defendants in these casestold MLive the workers were low-level pawns exploited — if not human trafficked — by shadowy overlords, required to work long hours in hot warehouses for little to no under-the-table pay and sleeping together in cramped apartments or on grow room floors. x

State police didn’t respond to MLive request for comment.

“Based on recent law enforcement actions in Michigan pertaining to the apprehension of Chinese nationals growing marijuana illegally in our state, it makes sense to be concerned that what is happening across the United States is happening in Michigan as well,” Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency Director Brian Hanna said.

‘A CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION’

State police seized 5,057 plants valued near $5 million from a warehouse in Alabaster Township along the shores of Lake Huron on May 29.

“There (is evidence) that that this is part of a criminal organization,” Iosco County Prosecutor James A. Bacarella said. “Everything was going straight from Michigan to New York. I don’t know what happens to it after it goes to New York.”

The Iosco County operation leased a warehouse in 2023 and the four suspects –Meiqing Chen, 53; Wenying Wu, 39; Changning Zhen and Zhenhong Nei — lived together in an Oscoda apartment about 25 miles north of the warehouse, according to charging documents.

Chen, whose name is listed on the lease and invoices according to Bacarella, and Wu are charged with maintaining a drug house and deliver or manufacture of in excess of 45 kilograms of marijuana, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. They expected to enter plea deals when they return to court on Nov. 3, according to court records. The other defendants have been released to ICE.

A search of their residence revealed documents connecting the suspects to a “known marijuana grow in Ionia where a previous search warrant had been executed” in January 2025, the state police charging affidavit said.

Beyond health concerns presented by unregulated and untested marijuana, Bacarella said there are concerns the vulnerable workers are being exploited and potentially trafficked.

Gathering information from the Chinese defendants has been a challenge, due to the language barrier and lack of cooperation, which Bacarella said often arises in human trafficking scenarios.

“It’s been difficult because, obviously, not everybody speaks Cantonese,” said Stephanie Koorndyk, regarding her client, Guanrong Haung, one of five defendants arrested in Lake County. “Getting a translator to come out and talk with our clients, that is difficult.”

From what little information Koorndyk has gleaned, she worries Haung, a man in his 30s who entered the U.S. with his spouse, may be in an indentured servitude situation.

“He was supposed to get a monthly wage, and he still hadn’t gotten one,” she said. “He’d been working for a few months, at least, and then he alluded to the fact that he has some gambling debts and stuff back in China.

“So reading between the lines, I feel that it could be something more serious.”

SHADY BUSINESS OR TRAFFICKING?

Koorndyk, who was court appointed, said her client has given her ambiguous answers to questions. “I just get the sense that he’s afraid, or something,” she said.

A man who interacted with the operation became suspicious and alerted police, Koorndyk said.

She and another court-appointed attorney are representing the Lake County defendants who face possible deportation.

Meanwhile, Bloomfield Hills-based attorney Elias Muawad was hired to defend five of the naturalized citizens charged in the Lake and Iosco County cases. Muawad doesn’t believe any of the defendants were trafficked.

“Trafficking to me, and I’ll be quite honest with you: you’re forcing them to do it,” he said. “I don’t see anything here were these Chinese nationals are forced to do it.

“I’m going to tell you why. They have their passports when they’re arrested.”

Muawad said some of his clients were paid between $1,000 to $1,500 per month off the tax rolls for harvesting the marijuana and loading the trucks.

“They don’t know if these places are legal or illegal, but ignorance of the law, you know, is no excuse,” he said. “This is more of a business than a trafficking issue.”

THE NATIONAL STAGE

ProPublica, a nonprofit media group, conducted an extensive investigation that revealed sophisticated links between black market marijuana and Chinese organized crime operations.

“The mobsters operate in a loose but disciplined confederation overseen from New York by mafias rooted in southern China, according to state and federal officials,” ProPublica reports. “Known as ‘triads’ because of an emblem used long ago by secret societies, these criminal groups wield power at home and throughout the diaspora and allegedly maintain an alliance with the Chinese state.”

The investigation painted a picture of a multi-faceted crime syndicate that’s also involved in fentanyl distribution and money laundering.

The Boston U.S. Attorney’s Office in July announced the arrests of seven Chinese nationals accused of participating in a “multi-million-dollar money laundering, alien smuggling and drug trafficking enterprise” involving grow operations stationed inside suburban homes across Maine and Massachusetts.

Oklahoma has been a hotbed of Chinese-linked black-market operations for years, in part due to its loosely regulated legal marijuana framework.

Woodward, with the Oklahoma Department of Narcotics, told MLive there were 8,400 farms in the state nearly three years ago and 80% of those had links to Chinese operators.

He said it took a quadruple homicide at a farm in 2022 by a “Chinese assassin showing up on a farm demanding payment” for people to realize the scope of the problem.

“We’ve seen several other homicides and you never know how many we don’t have — where they shot everybody, buried them in the tree line and replaced them with a work crew from one of their other farms four miles up the road,” Woodward said. “And nobody’s missing these people, except their families back in China because they’re undocumented.

“Then we’ve identified human trafficking, sex trafficking, extortion, fires, besides just the homicides and weapons and things like that.”

National concerns led the U.S. House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability to hold a two-hour hearing on Chinese-linked illicit marijuana Sept. 18 that included mention of the Michigan busts.

The hearing was titled, “Invasion of the Homeland: How China is Using Illegal Marijuana to Build a Criminal Network Across America.”

“I think when people think of drug problems, they think of Mexico … ” said Paul Larkin, who testified before the committee and is a researcher with the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank. “They don’t realize the full extent of the tentacles that China has extended into the United States.

“The public needs to know this.”