(The Center Square) − A federal grand jury in Louisiana has indicted six individuals — including five Chinese nationals — on racketeering and drug trafficking charges tied to a sprawling illicit marijuana network with potential links to Chinese transnational criminal organizations.
Three individuals were residing in the U.S. illegally.
The indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, charges the six individuals with conspiring to cultivate and distribute marijuana as part of a criminal enterprise in Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana.
The Louisiana indictment charges the defendants with violating federal racketeering statutes and drug trafficking laws.
“The purchase of real estate for both indoor and outdoor [marijuana] grows, and for the storage of needed equipment, is often initially funded through family and community connections, both in China and the United States, as many seek to skirt restrictions on the movement of currency from Chinese banks to foreign countries,” the Drug Enforcement Administration wrote in the 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment.
The case highlights a fast-growing trend documented in the 2025 report, which warns that Chinese transnational crime organizations have come to dominate the illegal cultivation and distribution of marijuana across the United States —from California to Maine.
According to the indictment, the group faces a minimum of five years and a maximum of 40, but the DEA report tells a different tale.
“Most of the grow sites are located in states where the cannabis industry is ‘legal’,” the report writes. “They face little prison time, if any, when caught, and often move to a new location in the same state or to another ‘legal’ state once discovered.”
According to the DEA, these groups exploit gaps in state-level cannabis regulations, often posing as legitimate businesses in states where marijuana is legal, but sidestepping licensing, production limits, and taxation.
The grows are staffed with undocumented laborers — many lured from China and Mexico under false promises of legal employment — who are closely monitored by cartel members, according to the report.
The so-called “shotgun approach” to distribution involves using multiple vehicles to transport small amounts of marijuana — typically a few hundred pounds — to avoid detection and reduce the risk of losing an entire shipment. Larger hauls are moved in tractor-trailers.
The reach is international as well, with marijuana produced in Chinese TCO-controlled grows trafficked as far as the United Kingdom, France, and Spain. Overseas shipments typically leave North America on container vessels or via international air cargo.
The drug trafficking is bolstered by a robust money laundering operation centered on the “Chinese Underground Banking System”, with a key hub in New York City. CUBS facilitates the repatriation of drug proceeds to mainland China, using methods such as straw buyers, casinos, and mortgage fraud.
The DEA report also warns of significant public health risks tied to these operations. Many grow sites use pesticides and fertilizers imported from China — including chemicals banned in the United States for decades due to their environmental toxicity. These substances contaminate soil, water, and air, and residual amounts are found in the marijuana consumed by users.
Notably, the marijuana produced by Chinese-run operations has some of the highest THC potency in the history of drug trafficking — ranging from 25% to 30% THC, compared to the national average of 16%. The DEA attributes this to selective breeding, optimized grow conditions and industrial-scale production techniques.
The demand for this ultra-potent marijuana is sharply increasing, particularly among young adults and teenagers.
The DEA cites data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health showing that nearly 22% of Americans used marijuana in 2023, with usage highest among young adults aged 18 to 25 at 36.5%. Youth consumption has also risen significantly, with more than 4 million adolescents ages 12 to 20 reporting marijuana use in the past year.
The surge in availability has driven an unprecedented rise in marijuana-related poisonings, especially among children under 12. From 2016 to 2022, calls to poison control centers more than doubled, and the DEA warns that THC-infused edibles—often packaged to resemble candy or snacks — continue to pose a growing risk.
