Representative Pete Sessions (R-TX) constructed a letter alongside his colleagues in the House and the Senate to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland regarding Chinese Communist Party (CCP) affiliated marijuana cultivation operations in America.
According to Rep. Session’s press release, these CCP-affiliated operations include other illicit activities such as human trafficking, drug trafficking, forced labor, and violent crime.
Furthermore, a leaked August 2023 document from the Department of Homeland Security suggested these operations are linked to a “larger network involving Asian transnational criminal organizations” that “dwarfs that of legal marijuana markets.”
“There is substantial evidence implicating the CCP in directly supporting illicit marijuana grow operations across the United States,” said Rep. Sessions and the lawmakers. “Further, the same DHS document indicated 270 suspected illicit marijuana operations in rural Maine generated an estimated $4.37 billion in revenue, far outpacing the $158 million from the state’s legal marijuana market last year … This issue is not limited to the illegal cultivation and distribution of marijuana. Allowing illicit marijuana farms tied to the CCP is a continued threat to national security, public safety, and human rights.”
The lawmakers also mentioned that local law enforcement seems unable to address these operations linked to the CCP.
“Sophisticated Chinese-affiliated marijuana operations have also been discovered in California, Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Nevada. For example, in Colorado, a Chinese cartel bought suburban homes near Denver and grew thousands of marijuana plants in residential basements. Whether located in retrofitted residential homes or on farmland, state regulatory and law enforcement entities appear unable to address these potentially CCP-supported grow operations despite their significant threat to local communities across the country,” wrote the lawmakers.
They ended the letter by asking the Department of Justice to brief the Legislative Branch on this subject by Feb. 23.
In addition to Sessions, the letter was signed by Senators Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Angus King (I-ME) as well as Representatives Jared Golden (D-ME) and David Valadao (R-CA) and 45 other Members of Congress.
