[Gypsy Nirvana]

A team of investigators led by the Grays Harbor County Drug Task Force executed search warrants at suspected marijuana grow operations tended by Chinese nationals in Grays Harbor, Thurston and King counties this week, resulting in the confiscation of an estimated $80 million or more in plants.

Starting at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, investigators began executing 50 search warrants. The raids resulted in 44 arrests, 26 vehicle confiscations, and the seizure of guns and other items of value, according to the sheriff’s office.

Marijuana plants, cash, gold and equipment and chemicals were seized after a series of raids in three Western Washington counties Tuesday.
Investigators also found $400,000 in cash and gold and seized 32,449 marijuana plants.

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office and the county’s Joint Narcotic Enforcement team were among more than two dozen agencies participating in Tuesday’s raids.

Illegal Pot Raids Shock Neighbors in Grays Harbor County

Illegal marijuana grows involving Chinese nationals in states that have legalized marijuana are becoming increasingly common, said Chief Criminal Deputy Steve Shumate, of the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office.

“Throughout the western United States pretty much any state that’s legal you’ll see there have been big busts,” he said.

While no warrants were served in Lewis County Tuesday, several similar raids have been conducted in the county in the past year.

As of October, JNET had served warrants at five grow operations and seized 6,000 plants since December 2106.

Weed Busts Begin Producing Court Appearances

Law enforcement agencies from New York and the East Coast helped local agencies in investigations of marijuana grows in Lewis County, according to information previously provided by JNET.

In late September, JNET executed a similar search warrant on Senn Road in Napavine, seizing 2,500 growing plants and arresting two men Jian Ming Zhu, 61, and Jin Liang Tan, 36, who most recently lived in San Francisco.

The men were suspected of being part of a marijuana trafficking operation on the West Coast between Washington and California.

According to court documents, Tan told police he tends both of the grows raided on Sept. 27 and said he transports “large amounts of marijuana to Seattle in exchange for $900 per pound.”

In October, deputies arrested Jing Ming Gao, 55, of Brooklyn, New York, in a “makeshift bedroom” in a Vader marijuana grow located in a barn. Gao was not immediately charged.

“Additional suspects have been identified in this investigation and warrants will be requested for their arrests,” according to a news release from JNET at the time.

The investigation that led to Tuesday’s warrants started when citizens in Grays Harbor County reported possible illegal marijuana grows in the Elma area. After police in McCleary, Aberdeen and Hoquiam also received complaints, the Grays Harbor task force took over the investigation.

Raids on Pot Grow Houses Finding More Chinese Nationals, Mysterious Financing

In the past four months, the task force learned suspects were buying homes for the purpose of setting up marijuana grows. Most were purchased with cash, and the purchases were conducted by “Chinese nationals involved in organized crime,” according to the Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office.

“The proceeds from these illegal grows appear to be funding other criminal enterprises,” according to the sheriff’s office.

Shumate said investigations in other parts of the country have showed that organized criminal enterprises have brought groups of people from China to the western United States specifically to tend the illegal grows.

He said local investigators are still working to determine where all of the people arrested Tuesday were from, how they got here and where the profits from the massive grows were headed.

“Obviously that money is going somewhere,” Shumate said.

Investigators suspect the trail will head to the East Coast, he said, where marijuana’s street value is higher.

Of the 50 warrants executed, 38 were in Grays Harbor County, split between Hoquiam, Aberdeen, Grayland, Ocean Shores, Cosmopolis, Montesano, Elma and McCleary addresses.

Eight warrants were served in Bellevue, Kent and Medina in King County, and four were served in Olympia and Lacey.

The grows not only had no valid state licenses, but in some cases were set up in areas off limits to legal grows, such as houses near schools, according to the Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office.

“There is a tremendous amount of work left to do for this massive investigation,” states a press release issued Wednesday from the sheriff’s office. “We again want to thank all of our federal, state and local partners who assisted with this significant operation.”


https://www.chronline.com/organized-c...a6534e241.html

https://www.wfmynews2.com/news/crime/...-law/495865630

[rubberducky]

Good. Fuxk all the illegals no matter where there from they are coming here renting/buying houses and tapping power and completely ruining the market. Where I'm at you can't help but run into some illegal that's tapping power and selling indoor 1500 a pound. Fuck them all. Can't pay your power bill then don't grow fucking pieces of shit.

[rubberducky]

I can drive you around my town and literally point out over 10 houses that are being tapped and I mean no exaggeration at all, by some illegal and their busting out 20 30 light ops. And those are just the ones I know about. In my area its mostly Hispanics and Asians doing this. There is a fair share of whites and other races doing it. But know a lot of people and easily 80 percent that's tapping and ruining the market is Hispanics and Asians that is from my personal experiance. By the way I could care less your color or nationality. Its just fact as I see it with my own eyes as its unfolding in my own home city.
:(

[moose eater]

Well, they appear to have mastered the whole ,"Go big, or go home.." thing. But they seem to have added, "Go big, get popped, and be -sent- home.. as in.. back to China..." as that's probably where Uncle Sam will send Chinese Nationals involved in such antics... though maybe after serving some federal time.

Canned Heat sang, 'Speed Kills' in the tune 'Amphetamine Annie.' I've always thought they should've done a re-write, using the lyrics "Greed kills."

I've seen greed cause almost as much carnage as speed.. maybe more..

[Chunkypigs]

Do you even carbon filter bro?

[~star~crash~]

Originally Posted by moose eater

Well, they appear to have mastered the whole ,"Go big, or go home.."

lol ...

[Gypsy Nirvana]

Its probably much cheaper to send the Chinese people over to grow it there in the US, than it is to grow it in China then ship it.

Very industrious people the Chinese, they built a good chunk of Americas infrastructure over the past 2-300 years.

This all sounds like you could make some sort of historical correlation in reverse with a comparison to 'The Opium Wars' many years ago when the British were in control of the Asian opium trade, and got much of China smoking opium....Hmm or is that a bit far fetched? You can't really compare cannabis to opium I suppose.....anyway, interesting piece of history :

https://www.victorianweb.org/history/...piumwars1.html

[Patmando22]

Power companies are monopolizing crocks

[moose eater]

Originally Posted by Gypsy Nirvana

Its probably much cheaper to send the Chinese people over to grow it there in the US, than it is to grow it in China then ship it.

Very industrious people the Chinese, they built a good chunk of Americas infrastructure over the past 2-300 years.

This all sounds like you could make some sort of historical correlation in reverse with a comparison to 'The Opium Wars' many years ago when the British were in control of the Asian opium trade, and got much of China smoking opium....Hmm or is that a bit far fetched? You can't really compare cannabis to opium I suppose.....anyway, interesting piece of history :

https://www.victorianweb.org/history...piumwars1.html

'Bout 22-24 years ago, there were groups of Mexican nationals who'd been set up in rentals to tend crops in Anchorage, Ak.. The folks running the show had left them with spiral notebooks and very specific instructions re. tending the crops.

Costs were kept to a minimum; no ventilation for excess moisture, etc. The rentals turned to piles of shit from the moisture rotting sheet-rock and floors.

No recollection of what the poor bastards doing the actual farming were being paid, but I don't think it was very much.. Few of them were English-speaking, and the folks who'd left the instructions in the notebooks, to my memory, never got named, let alone indicted. (I knew one of the attorneys who caught a part of the case).

The 'tenders' all agreed to testify against one another for a plea bargain involving seriously reduced time. So, with everyone cutting a deal, no one who didn't cut a deal getting indicted, the primary movers and shakers skating scot free, it amounted to very little time in prison in the end.

Property owners who'd rented the homes were pissed off, as they were looking at TENS OF THOUSANDS of dollars in repairs and renovations per residence..

The OTHER side of what we enjoy doing, or do to make ends meet. When done irresponsibly, with little respect for the owners of the property used (in the case of rentals), it has a way of turning would-be supporters dead-set against our cause.

[Gypsy Nirvana]

In the past four months, the task force learned suspects were buying homes for the purpose of setting up marijuana grows. Most were purchased with cash, and the purchases were conducted by “Chinese nationals involved in organized crime,” according to the Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office.

Looks like they were buying up homes, rather than renting them, probably creating quite a property portfolio at the same time. Literally growing for property.