OREGON—Authorities have seized eight tons of marijuana, 17,704 plants, four unlawfully obtained weapons, and a large cache of U.S. currency in an illegal growing operation linked to Chinese cartels.
The June 14 bust “had all the hallmarks of a cartel operation,” Sgt. Kent VanderKamp of the Central Oregon Drug Enforcement (CODE) team told The Epoch Times. “Guns. Intimidation. International money laundering.
“Law enforcement also discovered technology linked to the Chinese government.
“The operation had processing equipment that came from the Chinese government,” VanderKamp said, including a vape pen cartridge filling station with a Chinese government tax stamp.
“That means at some point the equipment had to go through the government for exports,” he explained….