(Associated News Service) Following the execution of a search warrant at 199 Middle Road in Fairfield related to an illegal cannabis growing operation, the Somerset County Sheriff’s Department released images from the raid that show illegal Chinese-made fumigants—highly toxic chemicals not approved for any use in the United States.
According to a statement from the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office, more than 700 illegal cannabis plants were present at the time of the search warrant execution—a small haul compared to the dozens of raids executed over the past year that have resulted in thousands of illegal marijuana plants being seized.
As previously reported exclusively by the Maine Wire, the Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations operating more than 270 black-market marijuana sites throughout the state of Maine have sourced the toxic fumigants from compatriots in California.
Law enforcement materials reviewed by the Maine Wire show that the fumigants present at the Middle Road marijuana grow were Carbamate Insecticide (blue label) and Thiophanate Methyl 70% (pink label).
The products are typically accompanied by or added to sawdust and flammable wicks, which are ignited so that the smoke will cause the toxic ingredients to coat the surfaces of a room and the plants within the space.
The Carbamate Insecticide contained in the blue mylar bag is a toxic concoction of thirteen different insecticides and fungicides, including: Chlorfenapyr, Chlorothalonil, Cypermethrin, Dichlorvos (DDVP), Fenpropathrin, Fenobucarb, Isoprocarb, Procymidone, Profenofos, Pyridaben, Pyrimethanil, Tebuconazole, and Metrifonate.
The pink mylar bag contains the following insecticides, pesticides, and fungicides: Chlorfenapyr, Chlorothalonil, Cypermethrin, Dichlorvos (DDVP), Fenobucarb, Isoprocarb, Procymidone, Profenofos, Pyridaben, Pyrimethanil, and Metrifonate.
Of those chemicals, Procymidone, Isoprocarb, Fenobucarb, are not registered for use in the United States.
All of the chemicals contained in those fumigant blends are extremely toxic for humans, and some, such as Dichlorvos and Fenpropathrin, can even be fatal.
Exposure to the toxins can cause nausea, vomiting, intestinal distress, dizziness, chest pain, difficulty breathing, numbness, and irritation around mucous membranes like the mouth, throat, and eyes.
The chemicals also pose various levels of danger to wildlife if introduced into bodies of water through the improper disposal of cannabis waste byproducts.
Because the use of Chinese-made fumigant blends is illegal, very few studies have been conducted on how the chemicals linger through the smoking, vaping, or manufacturing process to ultimately impact end users of the illegally grown cannabis.
[RELATED: The Restaurateur: Bangor Business Owner Linked to Illicit Marijuana Grows…]
Currently, eight of the Chinese-made pesticides and/or fungicides contained within the products found on Tuesday in Fairfield are not on the list of harmful chemicals that legal marijuana growers in the adult-use program are required to test for.
That means Maine’s four major cannabis testing labs may not have the equipment and processes in place to detect whether marijuana passing through their labs has been exposed to or contaminated by illegally imported Chinese toxins.
The chemicals not currently on Maine’s list for required testing are Chlorothalonil, Fenobucarb, Isoprocarb, Procymidone, Profenofos, Pyrimethanil, Metrifonate, and Fenpropathrin.
The lack of testing for these eight dangerous chemicals means that cannabis treated with any of them could pass through a testing lab without being flagged as toxic for human consumption.
In other words, nefarious cannabis growers could derive the benefits of using pesticides and fungicides—i.e., unspoiled crops—while never having their cannabis flagged as adulterated with dangerous substances.
READ MORE:
- Cannabis Office Docs, Police Records Highlight Maine’s Failure to Combat Chinese Criminal Gangs (PART I)
- Illegal Chinese Marijuana in Maine: The Shadowy Network of Johnny Wu and Green Future LLC (PART II)
- The Organ Harvester: The Shadowy Network of Green Future LLC (PART III)
It’s unclear whether Maine’s Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP) has taken any steps to protect consumers or law enforcement from the new and poorly understood toxins now appearing at black-market Chinese marijuana grow operations in Maine.
At a legislative hearing earlier this year, OCP Director John Hudak admitted that he had seen some harmful pesticides while accompanying law enforcement on a raid of an illegal marijuana grow.
Following his testimony, the Maine Wire asked whether Hudak had distributed any guidance to Maine’s law enforcement agencies on how officers should protect themselves when encountering illegal marijuana grows that may contain toxic Chinese-made agricultural chemicals.
He did not respond.
In the same legislative testimony, Hudak said that his agency was granting lucrative medicinal marijuana licenses to individuals they suspected were linked to Chinese criminal organizations.
“We do have some internal processes that we have tried to implement to at least identify when individuals are applying to enter the program from addresses that were previously associated with a search warrant that gives us some visibility about what might be going on,” he said.
“They’re applying so they can have a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card, or what they perceive as a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card to continue to do the operations that they’re doing. Which, by and large, is directing product out of state as well,” he said.
The Maine Wire first reported exclusively last year on the role dangerous Chinese-made toxins were playing in the hundreds of marijuana grows spread across rural Maine.
Based on law enforcement sources, we reported that California officials had obtained information showing that one address in California was shipping toxins identical to those found in Fairfield all over the U.S., including to New York, Massachusetts, and one home in Monmouth, ME.
The Maine Wire visited that house (no one answered the door) and learned from a neighbor that the house was typically abuzz with activity — but only from 2am to 5am. After we reported that the house, located at 254 Academy Road in Monmouth, was implicated in a multi-state law enforcement investigation, it went up for sale within weeks.
Illegal Chinese Neurotoxins Are Coming to Maine’s Blackmarket Cannabis Grows: Maine Threat Brief
Shortly after, a family who toured the home as prospective buyers told the Wire that they immediately began experiencing respiratory symptoms consistent with exposure to the very Chinese-made pesticides and fungicides that had been shipped to that address.
When the Maine Wire made inquiries with the realtor listing the house — Xuefei “Annie” Jun — and attempted to arrange a tour, the house was taken off the market and our phone calls were never returned.
Kennebec County property records show that the Monmouth property belongs to Wayne Yang.
Like many Maine properties that would go on to become black market marijuana grows controlled by Chinese criminal elements, Yang used a special mortgage from Quontic Bank to procure the property.
As with dozens of similar Quontic-financed properties, Yang’s mortgage officer for the transaction was Quontic loan officer Ying-Chan Weng, a Chinese national and a graduate of Zhejiang University in southern China.
The property raided Tuesday in Fairfield where Chinese-made toxins were discovered belongs to Guoli Liu, aka Skylur Liu, a 33-year-old man from New York.
He purchased the property in cash in May 2021 using the name Skylur G. Liu and an address in Brooklyn.
Although Maine has both an adult use recreational and a medicinal cannabis program, the Chinese organized crime networks cultivate cannabis in amounts far beyond the limits of the programs, avoid paying taxes and fees, and use banned substances like the Chinese-made pesticides photographed at the Fairfield raid.
According to the Maine Attorney General’s Office, the groups also transport their cannabis illegally over state lines for sale in other states, including states where cannabis remains prohibited.
The Department of Homeland Security has said that proceeds from the sales of black-market marijuana is used to support other criminal activities, such as narcotics trafficking and human trafficking, and other malign endeavors of criminal actors operating with the tactic blessing of the Chinese Communist Party.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills has yet to acknowledge the massive foreign criminal conspiracy that took control of rural Maine almost entirely during her tenure in office, though she did mention in her January State of the State address that something ought to be done about “illicit” marijuana grows.
Steve Robinson – TheMaineWire.com
As a reminder, authors’ opinions are their own and may not represent those of Grok Media, LLC, GraniteGrok.com, its sponsors, readers, authors, or advertisers. Submit Op-Eds to steve@granitegrok.com
Donate to the ‘Grok to keep the content coming.
GraniteGrok.com is a member of The Associated News Service
