Chinese gangs have set up thousands of illicit weed farms across the US as they begin to challenge Mexican cartels for supremacy as America's cannabis kingpins.
Authorities in Oklahoma, Oregon, California, New Mexico and Maine have all been battling a surge in Chinese weed farms, with some thought to be linked to criminal gangs known as 'triads'.
The spread is seemingly uncontainable, with police in Penobscot County, Maine, last week arresting three Chinese nationals at a weed farm and seizing 40 pounds of the drug alongside $4,700 in cash.
It is thought to be one of around 270 illegal weed farms worth more than $4billion that have sprung up across the state since it legalized the drug in 2020.
Local law enforcement has carried out multiple busts already this year.
Meanwhile, around 2,000 'suspicious' marijuana plants in Oklahoma have been linked to China, accounting for two thirds of weed farms under surveillance, state narcotics police told Politico.
Earlier this month, a Chinese ringleader was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to fatally shooting four people at an illegal medical marijuana operation in Oklahoma.
Mexican cartels have long dominated the market for illegal weed in the US, but officials are now warning that Chinese funding for such operations is skyrocketing...more
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