Another illegal marijuana growing operation has been uncovered in Maine this week.
Somerset County sheriff’s deputies raided the Betterment Road home in Norridgewock on Wednesday morning, according to the Waterville Morning Sentinel.
As a result of the raid, police seized 1,310 plants and several pounds of harvested marijuana, among other drug material.
Zunjie Wu, 26, of Brooklyn, New York, has been charged with cultivation of marijuana and drug trafficking, the Sentinel reported. He was being held at the Somerset County Jail in East Madison.
That marks the third illegal marijuana operation uncovered in Somerset County alone in recent days, coming on the heels of raids in Norridgewock and Mercer late last week.
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 Guilford and Sangerville in Piscataquis County, to Corinna in Penobscot County, to Turner in Androscoggin County, to Cornville in Somerset County, to Belgrade, China and Chelsea in Kennebec County, to Jefferson and Whitefield in Lincoln County.
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. As 2023 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 in August, estimates Maine has 270 large-scale illegal marijuana grows connected to organized crime groups in China. The memo’s authors note 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.
Similar operations have been found in California, Oklahoma and Oregon.
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 Attorney General Merrick Garland.
It’s not yet clear whether the Norridgewock operation is connected to others uncovered across Maine or to the crime network described in the federal memo.
