Police have busted another illegal marijuana grow house in Cornville.
Officers raided a West Ridge Road home about 1 p.m. Wednesday, finding a “large indoor marijuana plant cultivation operation” and a drying and processing room, according to the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office.
During the raid, officers seized 1,497, approximately 53 pounds of processed marijuana, $1,800 in cash, drug-related articles and a 2017 Toyota van, the sheriff’s office said Thursday.
Yihui Chen, 52, and Shubing Gao, 46, both of Brooklyn, New York, have been charged with unlawful trafficking in scheduled drugs and cultivation of marijuana.
They are being held at the Somerset County Jail in Madison on $15,000 bail. Both have been scheduled to appear in Somerset County Unified Criminal Court on March 5, 2025.
It’s just the latest large-scale illegal marijuana operation uncovered in Maine in recent months.
Since the beginning of the new year, police have been active in busting these large operations, which have been found all over rural Maine, from Brownville, Guilford, Milo and Sangerville in Piscataquis County, to Corinna, Eddington, Holden and Passadumkeag in Penobscot County, to Turner in Androscoggin County, to Anson, Canaan, Cornville, Harmony, Madison, Mercer, Norridgewock, Ripley, Skowhegan, Solon and St. Albans in Somerset County, to Jay in Franklin County, to Belgrade, China, Chelsea, Farmingdale and Manchester in Kennebec County, to Jefferson and Whitefield in Lincoln County, to Mexico in Oxford County, to Belmont and Freedom in Waldo County, to Parsonsfield in York County.
Wednesday’s bust was the 22nd in Somerset County since the beginning of the year. Those busts have resulted in 13 arrests and the seizure of approximately 28,000 marijuana plants, 250 pounds of processed marijuana, $50,000 in cash and five vehicles, the sheriff’s office said.
These operations received greater scrutiny after the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office found an illegal marijuana grow house in Carmel, where police seized 3,400 plants and 111 pounds of processed marijuana in late June 2023. As the year dragged on, police uncovered other large illegal marijuana operations in Dexter, Wilton, Machias and other communities.
A leaked federal government memo, first obtained by the conservative Daily Caller and published last August, estimated that Maine had as many as 270 large-scale illegal marijuana grows connected to organized crime groups in China. The memo’s authors noted that the money may be used to further crime in the U.S. or be sent back to China. These operations generate an estimated $4.37 billion in revenue.
That claim has been substantiated further by FBI Director Christopher Wray who previously said that homes, typically in rural Maine, are being turned into growing and processing facilities tied to Chinese organized crime.
Maine’s congressional delegation has twice pressed the U.S. Justice Department to crack down on these illegal marijuana operations, most recently on Jan. 25, 2024.
“We applaud Maine law enforcement for their continued efforts to investigate and shutdown these illegal operations, and we encourage the Department of Justice (DOJ) and other federal partners to provide additional support for these efforts. These illegal growing operations are detrimental to Maine businesses that comply with State laws, and we urge the DOJ to shut them down,” U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King and U.S. Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden said in their January letter to the attorney general.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is investigating criminal syndicates running illegal grows in at least 20 states. That revelation from U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland came in response to questioning by Collins during an Appropriations Committee hearing in mid-April.
It’s unclear whether the Cornville operation is connected to other illegal marijuana grows in Maine or to the crime network described in the federal memo.
No additional information was immediately available.
