Sen. Susan Collins on Wednesday told the heads of two federal law enforcement agencies that Maine needs more federal help combating illegal marijuana grow houses.
At a hearing to review budget requests from federal law enforcement agencies, the Republican senator from Maine asked FBI Director Kash Patel what the bureau is doing to address the “dangerous” grow houses operating in Maine, Oklahoma, California and other states.
A leaked federal government memo in 2023 connected illegal marijuana grow houses in Maine to Chinese organized crime, estimating at the time the presence of 270 growing sites in Maine linked to China that could produce more than $4 billion in revenue.
About 60 properties were searched in 2024. At the end of that year an assistant U.S. attorney estimated that “well below” 100 such properties remained in the state.
Collins said federal agencies have been helpful in the past to track money laundering, which is often linked to the grow houses, and provide interpreters to question suspects who are arrested, who may have been trafficked and forced to work and live at the illegal operations.
“Last year, you testified that the FBI would be sending more resources to the field, specifically to Maine, to combat these dangerous operations,” Collins said, adding that local sheriffs “have reported some improvement in federal interest and participation.”
Patel said many of the Chinese citizens running illegal growing operations have severed ties with their home country. In response, he said, the FBI is working with Homeland Security Task Forces to “reverse engineer” the connections through banking records in an effort to shut down the financiers of the U.S. operations.
Asked by Collins if a connection exists between the grow houses and the fentanyl trade, Patel said revenue from sales of the illegally grown marijuana “always goes back into the drug trafficking trade, into the drug traffickers’ pockets,” but federal officials have not been able to confirm a direct connection to the Chinese government.
“I’m not saying it doesn’t happen,” Patel said. “What we’re not seeing yet is the money directly being shipped back over to mainland China and the CCP from these grow house operations.”
Drug Enforcement Administrator Terrance Cole told Collins the grow house operators often use cryptocurrency to transfer wealth instantaneously. He said the DEA with its Bangor office identified up to 250 potential locations where that is occurring.
Collins said the statistic “shows how incredibly serious this problem is.”
She said the grow houses are often rendered uninhabitable by mold, which is a problem in a state with a housing shortage.
