September 25, 2024 • 40 mins
While harvesting marijuana in Maine is legal, local, and federal authorities have unearthed what appears to be an underground network of illegal, unregulated marijuana grow houses operated by Chinese transnational criminal organizations. The Department of Homeland Security claim law enforcement officials have identified the existence of at least 270 illicit cultivation operations in Maine. We discussed what’s been unfolding in Maine with Steve Robinson, the Editor-in-Chief of the Maine Wire.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's with Dan Ray. I'm Deli feazy Boston.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
We won't get back.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
To the story at eleven o'clock. My problems with the
Boston Globe. But I have to give a bit of
an acknowledgment to the Globe today because Kevin Cullen wrote
a piece about black market pot farms on rise in
Maine remote areas, a draw to those with crops to hide.
The headline somewhat misleading because the headline would make you
(00:30):
think that somehow there's a bunch of Americans up there
growing illegal plot farms in Maine. These are folks who
are being funded by the government of China. The other
point I want to make is that as good a
reporter as Kevin is, and he's a friend of mine,
he's a little late to the story on this one.
Because this story was broken over a year ago by
(00:50):
Steve Robinson of The Main Wire, which is a digital
news source in Maine. We're delighted to have Steve Robinson
back with us tonight. We also will have Derek Maults
in a moment. He's a retired drug Enforcement administrator administration
twenty eight years of dedicated service and he has worked
(01:11):
on this project as well to you and I Steve,
and hello to you. And I know Derek is listening.
Derek will get you in a moment. We talked about this,
this story you broke a year ago. It was brought
to my attention and we gave you all the credit
in the world. Fortunately Globe didn't have the I guess,
the ability or the class to give you some credit
(01:34):
and a story that you really have been working on
now for months and months and months. Welcome back to Nightside.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
How are you, hey, Dan?
Speaker 5 (01:41):
Thanks for having me on it. I do out of
the gate. I have to give some credit to Jenny Tare,
who's now a New York Post immigration reporter down in Texas.
But she was the one who published the original leaked
memo revealing the existence of these sites nationwide. All I
did was, you know, take her q that there were
hundreds and hundreds of these in Maine, and I went
(02:03):
out and found them and tracked down the owners and
some of the financing behind it all. But I you know,
while we're talking about giving proper.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
No, I'm not with you.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
Yeah that you're wrong all.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
You're a class accurate journalist and in the in the
truest sense, of the word. Uh, Maine is a big state.
People don't realize how big Maine is. They think of
it as one of six New England states. But I
would bet you that the the the area of the
state of Maine is as big as Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts,
New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
Well, yeah, you're absolutely right. All the other New England
states can fit inside Maine with some room to spare,
I believe.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
And so in place, it's a perfect place to do
what these these international groups u transnational groups are doing.
Speaker 6 (02:56):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
The funding for this and if I'm in correct here,
feel free to correct me. But my recollection when we
talked and what you have discovered is that the funding
for this is is actually coming from China and.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
A lot of the fund the funding. Yeah, so the
funding is coming from Asian transnational criminal organization aka the
Chinese mafia. And these these criminal organizations exist in a
kind of uneasy partnership with the Chinese government itself where
they kind of allow them to continue to operate as
(03:32):
long as it's advancing the goals of the Communist Party.
So we don't know that there's a you know, a
transfer of money coming directly from the Communist Party to
buy these properties. But we do know that there's there's
money going back, So that's Homeland security money going back.
Speaker 6 (03:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Well they just like with any any group, you're paying tribute.
They're paying tribute. But the bottom line is this marijuana
now is legal in Maine legal am I correct on that?
Speaker 5 (04:03):
Yeah, marijuana is legal in Maine. But there's a medicinal
program and there's an adult use recreational program, and both
of them have guardrails and regulations and you have to
be licensed. And what we're finding is that these the
illicit Chinese marijuana grows break all of the rules. In
most cases, in ninety nine percent of cases, don't even
(04:26):
try to get a permit, and when they do get
a permit, they still break all of the rules. And
they're also contaminating their marijuana with dangerous pesticides like paklobrizol
is one, which is an endricin disruptor. So if you're
using illicit cannabis that you know, you don't know where
(04:46):
it came from, well there's a chance that it's you know,
some of the marijuana grown at one of the two
hundred and seventy locations in northern Maine that's been tainted
with some pretty dangerous pesticides.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Yeah, and this, by the way, was it's one of
the underlying arguments for the legalization of marijuana. They said,
get it out of the hands of illicit dealers, whether
it's you know, underworld mafia, whatever you want to call it.
Make sure it's regulated and it can generate some tax
revenue for all the states. I think probably right now
(05:19):
and I'm guessing at least more than half the states
now allow medicinal and probably nearly as many allow recreational marijuana.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
Yeah, or it's decriminalized to some extent. But you know,
I'll say that the story of Oklahoma has told us
that there's really whether you're calling it medicinal or recreational,
there's not much difference. If you regalize the large, large
scale cultivation of the product, you're going to get criminal organizations,
and the Chinese criminal organizations appear to be especially adept
(05:56):
at it. And I'll say that, you know, there's if
Kevin Cullen is looking for stories, he could come up
with one of his own right in Massachusetts, because in
Hamden just this week there was a bust of the
same thing that we've seen here in Maine time and
time again, a residential property that has been hollowed out
and converted into a marijuana wanna grow and over I
(06:19):
think a thousand plants were seized. And that's just, you know,
just one, and I have plenty of reasons to believe,
but there are more in that here.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
The irony here is you've done all this great work
on this. You have exposed this digital news site, main Wire,
and you're the editor in chief of the main Wire.
You've done all of this great work which could put you,
by the way, in some jeopardy, to be honest with you,
because you are interrupting a transnational criminal operation, which, by
(06:52):
the way, as I understand it is also be fun
being funded through a bank in New York City which
has some very interest being connections with monies that the
federal government has approved for small US businesses. Am I
recalling that correctly?
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Yeah, I mean you're right about the role of the
bank in this. But I'll just say that, you know,
I'm actually I'm I'm much safer than the last subject
of one of Kevin Cullins columns. That one ended up dying.
So I just consider myself lucky to be alive after
having a nearbrush with him. Journalistically speaking, But the bank
you're talking about is called Quantic Bank, and it's a
(07:36):
bank in New York that had not done any really
any loans to speak of in the state of Maine
until about twenty twenty and then started making loans exclusively
to people from outside of the state. And when I
looked closer at this bank, it turns out that it's
a Community Development Finance institution which the US Treasury Department
(07:56):
operates this fund to encourage loans to marginalized communities. But
this was taken advantage of by the Chinese criminal organizations,
and Quantic Bank saw in this a new market and
a new opportunity, so they advertised on the chat app
we Chat. They had Chinese language or Chinese speaking loan
(08:17):
officers who targeted the communities in New York where they
knew these loans would be successful. Now, Quantic might not
have known what was going to happen when these groups
began buying up those properties. They might not have asked
too many questions, But there's no denying that the US
Treasury Department helped subsidize loans for properties that later became
(08:40):
illicit marijuana grows, and some of them have actually been busted.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
So once this bank and it became knowledge that this
bank was lending money, not necessarily to American businesses, but
they were lending money to what were in effect transnational
Chinese marijuana growing businesses, which growing marijuana privately for public
consumption for public sale is still illegal, as I understand
(09:09):
that in most states that just because marijuana has been legalized,
when it's controlled by the state and people pay taxes.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
And all of that. It would be like if I'm
bruined beer in my seller and I'm selling cases of
beer out the back door. You know that some federal
regulator is going to come knock on my door and say, hey,
wait a second, Beer's legal, but not the type of
beer that you're bruin on your cellar and selling it
out the door and getting around paying any sort of taxes.
(09:37):
That's the irony here. And I just can't believe that,
well I do believe, because I see it that our
government is so asleep. My guest is Steve Robinson. He's
an excellent journalist. He works for a digital news site
called The main Wire. I had Steve with us two
or three times last winter talking about the story that
(10:01):
The Globe Today wrote about Steve. You tell me, this
is the first time the Globe has touched this story.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
Yeah, this is This is the first time I think
the Globe has mentioned it, which I mean isn't surprising.
They consider themselves the paper of record for New England,
but they don't really touch on too many stories from Maine.
But you know, Dan, I will give you credit because
very early on you saw our reporting on this, and
you know, I think took some professional risks having you know,
an independent journalist on to talk about it, you know,
(10:30):
someone that maybe a lot of your listeners in Massachusetts
hadn't heard of. But I think that the one of
the things that we've been very studious about, knowing that
our work is going to be held to maybe a
higher standard or a different standard, is to document it
with pictures and copies of real estate records, and to
do as much as we possibly could to you know,
(10:52):
show people what exactly leads us to have the interest
we do, make the claims we do, and report the
story is that we do. In Kevin Collins case, it
appears that he just read my stories and then called
some of the people who are mentioned in my stories.
I mean, there's information then in his story that has
only been reported in one other place about you know,
(11:14):
show companies in one of these busts. And I know
from talking with my sources that Kevin was referred to
my work and quickly changed the subject during the phone call. So,
I mean, it's it's very clear what happened here. And
you would think that a journalist like Kevin, who's on
thin ice ever since he was lot caught lying by
Kirk Minihan about the Boston bombing, you think he'd be
(11:36):
a little more careful about that kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Yeah. Again, I don't want to make this an too
much about Kevin, but the one thing I did want
to mention is that most of the Globe reporters, it'll
say so and so can be reached at you know,
the name at the Globe dot com, and Kevin he
gets sort of an exceptional reference. Kevin Collen is a
(11:58):
Globe reporter and columnist who Rome's New England.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
This office is the streets stand. He doesn't need to
You don't need to. You don't need to be in
an office waiting by the phone when you're out there
getting scoops. But hey, I while we're while we're talking
about his work, I've got, you know, I get another
story for him. We've reported that the uh A California
State Agency gave a briefing to main law enforcement, which
(12:27):
we've got to handle a copy of. And it turns
out that they're, in addition to the normal range of
pesticides and fungicides that they're illegally applying to the marijuana cropps,
uh they're also importing Chinese made pesticides and fungicides into California.
And the California investigators were able to find that there's
(12:48):
an address in Maine where these products are being shipped.
There's also a hydroponics store in Massachusetts where some of
these products are being received. And these the reason why
these pesticides are so dangerous is because one, you know,
they're made in China. They're so hazardous to your health.
They're banned in China. I mean, you know, the Chinese
government not really known for its you know, concern for
(13:12):
human health or environmental health, but they won't allow these
pesticides to be used. They're banned. There's no legitimate use
of them in the United States. So these are wildly
dangerous fatal carcinogenic will cause. You know, we don't even know.
The problems are so dangerous we stopped even studying just
how dangerous they can be. But the reason why this
is so alarming is because the testing facilities in Massachusetts, California,
(13:36):
in Maine where you would take a sample of marijuana
to have it tested for pesticides, don't actually screen for
these Chinese made pesticides. So you could take a sample
of marijuana grown at a site that has used these
dangerous chemicals, get it tested, and your report card comes
back a plus ten out of ten, no harmful ingredients,
no pesticides or fundicides, when in fact, you're going to
(13:59):
be consuming some of the most dangerous pesticides mankind has
ever created, and you'll never know until you're experiencing the
unintended consequences.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Wow, this would like be a a state trooper who
has a breathalyzer that just doesn't test for alcohol. So
they pull your overack and you do a breathalyze and
testing what it is you know, even though you're clean
as a whistle buddy, go ahead and drive on my Yes,
the Steve Robinson I got to take a quick breaks.
Steve wea come back. I'm going to talk to you
a little bit and get some phone calls. This is
(14:29):
important stuff, Okay, this is important stuff because most people
voted to legalize marijuana, which is fine, Okay, that's what
the majority of people want. As long as they were controls,
that's how it was sold up to us. And now
the government is turning their a blind eye to transnational
organizations that have two hundred and seventy you heard that
(14:50):
number that Steve mentioned, two hundred and seventy illegal growing
operations in the state of Maine alone. What we're going
to find out if the government in Maine what they
have done on this will continue on Nightside if you
like to join the conversation and give Steve Robinson a
kudo for his work. He broke the story a year ago,
(15:10):
and the Globe is touching in for the first time
today again, our newspaper of record six seven, two, five,
four ten thirty six one seven, nine three, one ten
thirty We brought back will also be joined by Derek
Maltz after the break as well.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
We're being joined by Derek Maltz, who's a special was
a special Agent in charge of the United States Department
of Justice Special Operations Division for almost ten years. Before
he left the federal government, he had been the chief
of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force, which is
the oldest and largest drug task force in America. Derek Maltz,
welcome back to Nightside. You have worked with Steve Robinson
(15:55):
on this project. You were with us in the radio
last winter as well. It's interesting, Derek. I made the
point to Steve earlier that the Globe headline on the
front page, to their credit, simply says black market plotfarms
on rise in Maine. What it should say to be
accurate Chinese plotfarms unrise in Maine. Your reaction to that, Derek.
Speaker 7 (16:20):
Dan, thanks for having me back, and I really appreciate
the call because I've been obsessed with this topic for
a while now, because obviously the Chinese transnational criminals and
not only bombing our country with synthetic drugs, but now
they're very strategic in what they're doing with the marijuana,
and all over the Northeast it's saturated, but not just
(16:42):
the northeast. I mean it's around the country now, Oklahoma
being ground zero. We have Chinese grow operations all over America.
But the problem is is that they're importing Chinese testicides
and they're spraying these chemicals on the crop, and then
people are smoking this stuff off not realizing what they're
ingesting into their lungs. So it's a huge national security thread.
(17:05):
But I will make it clear that we're like sixty
days or whatever it is away from the election. So
all these news outlets now are starting reports stuff all
of a sudden, like and they've been missing the boat
because it's been going on a long time.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Yeah, well that's the idea. What has the DEEA been doing?
I mean that's look. You know, it used to be
that if somebody was caught smoking a joint walking across
the Boston Common, they would be arrested. I'm not a druggie.
My drug is of choice's course light. But hey, it's
legal now, so we got to deal with it. But
they sold us on the idea of making it legal,
(17:40):
so we would get this sort of illegal activity us
a legal activity out of here, and the Chinese have
filled the vacuum. Is that not what's happened, one.
Speaker 7 (17:49):
Hundred percent, that's what's happening. They're very strategic. They wanted
to stabilize this country using chemicals, and what's happened in
his look the Massachusetts State Police and I worked with
them very closely, and as a matter of fact, I'm
at a conference with a large contingent from mass State Police.
They have one of the best cases going on in
America with the DEA. They're doing phenomenal work. Okay, so
(18:13):
I want to give them a lot of credit for
what they're doing, but the problem is it's overwhelming because
America is very soft on crime. America is very soft
on marijuana. We're legalizing marijuana, we're putting out messages that
it's safe, but nobody's paying attention. And your headlines further
supports what I'm about to say. They're not highlighting that
(18:33):
it's Chinese nationals that are running these operations to destroy America.
And it's not the part that people think about when
they think, oh, marijuana safe. You know three five percent THCHC.
This is thirty percent THC. It's causing marijuana schizophrenia in
marijuana psychosis, depression, anxiety, and our younger population thinks it's
(18:54):
safe to go ahead and smoke this stuff. So the
news organization is the federal government is not putting out
the proper information to the public.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Well, let me let me just say thank you to you,
and thank you to Steve. And by the way, when
you talk to any of the Massachusetts State Police detectives,
let them know you're on night side with Dan Ray.
Most of them know me. My brothers are retired state
police lieutenant up here in Massachusetts. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (19:16):
And by the way, they told me that because I
did speak to one of the bosses, one of the majors,
and I talked to them about it. And you know,
bottom line is is they are out front. They're doing
a great job, but it's an overwhelming problem. It's throughout,
it's throughout the country. It's not just in the northeast.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Yeah. Well, I remember when they were buying up farmland
in North Dakota.
Speaker 7 (19:36):
And but hold on, Dan, let's make this clear. They're
collecting multi millions of dollars in cash from the cartels
throughout the country, not just North Dakota. They're buying property,
they're buying real estate, they're investing in farmland like you said,
but not just in North Dakota, all over the place.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Oh no, I know that. The only reason I mentioned
North Dakota was the guy who was the mayor up there,
I think is Grand Forks, North Dakota. Ironically, it happened
to be a former NHL player and I had him
on the show. This was one that was very close
to I think the mine at North North I think
it was mineut North Dakota Air Force Base. So so yeah,
(20:16):
I'm following this, believe me, as closely as I can.
But the real work on the ground is being done
by guys like you and Steve Robinson, Steve weaken Back.
I want to get to phone calls, but I also
want to ask you. Since there's been so much focus
on Maine, I'm assuming that Maine is going after these.
I think you told me this. Two hundred and seventy
of these, and you can spot them. All you have
(20:37):
to do is fly a drone and you see these
abandoned farmhouses with the with the curtains close tight and
huge electrical you know, generators outside far outside, outsized in
terms of size. So you don't have to be elliott
Ness to know what's going on. We're gonna take a
(21:00):
quick break. We're going into national tonight, gentlemen, because my
first call is from the Philippines. My second call is
from New Brunswick, Canada, and we'll stick. I'd love to
keep you both until eleven o'clock if we could, because
everybody wants to talk to you, all right, stay right there. Yes,
Steve Robinson of the Main Wire and Derek Maltz, a
former Special Agent in charge of the US Department of
(21:22):
Justice Special Operations Division for almost ten years. These are
good men who are looking out. This is not about
you know what you know, the anti merril. This is
not an anti marijuana story. This is a story why
are we allowing Chinese transnational organizations to committed this country
(21:43):
buy p land uh sell pedal tainted marijuana on a
black market where a lot of kids will buy it
because it's a little less expensive than the marijuana that
is now run through marijuana stores in places like Maine
in Massachusetts. This is truly criminal behavior, and we're finally
talking about it in the Boston Globe. But that headline
(22:03):
should have said Chinese plot farms on rise in Maine,
not just black market plotfarms on rise. In Maine. We'll
be back right after this. As you can tell, I'm
wound up on this one.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
With Dan Ray on Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Back with my guest Steve Robinson of The Main Wire,
Derek Maltz x DEEA talking about illegal transnational organized crime
Chinese plotfarms across America. We're focusing on Maine because the
Boston Globe a year late to the story. Kevin Collin
filed a report from Machias, Maine in Today's Boston Globe
(22:49):
a year late, and again the headline is misleading. The
headline says black market plotfarms on rise and Maine. Those
crazy teams up in Maine must be running some black
market platforms. No they're not. They're international, transnational Chinese organized
crime that's doing this very quickly, Steve, because I want
to get to phone calls, and I will get to
phone calls very very quickly. How many potfarms are up
(23:13):
in Maine? And what do you think the estimate is
in terms of the value of their crops? Totally any idea?
Speaker 5 (23:20):
Well, well, I mean I think we're over three hundred
at this point, and I know the original Homeland Security
escident was two seventy or more. But I think that
we're well over. That's also shown that they're connected with
some well known restaurants in the area, some seemingly legitimate businesses.
So in terms of value, I mean, we're talking in
(23:40):
the billions of dollars that they've made by being able
to grow marijuana tax free, not paying fees in most cases,
not paying their workers, and then you know, violating federal
law by smuggling and out of the state to sell
it at a premium in black markets. But I'll tell
you they're a little bit poorer than they were at
the beginning of this year because there's been a trend
(24:03):
now that we've reported on that law enforcement sources have
talked to us about that some of the cash stashes
for Chinese marijuana growers are being robbed, sophisticated burglaries happening
after surveillance of the properties, and they're making off with
fifty one hundred, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars just
(24:24):
bags of cash, and oftentimes not calling the police about it.
But what we do know is that lawn, well, exactly,
how exactly do you explain that you're you know, sitting
on fifty thousand dollars cash. But law law enforcement in Maine,
and this is actually a new England wide phenomenon. But
in Maine they believe that it's triad organizations, other criminal
(24:49):
Chinese criminal organizations are robbing each other. In the southern
part of the state, they actually think that it's Mexican
cartels knocking off Chinese cash stashes. I mean, when Derek
talks about the role of the cartel organizations both in
Massachusetts and Maine, has something not to be downplayed there
because you might think that, you know, what's the harm,
(25:11):
They're just growing marijuana. But you know, Derek can elaborate
on what happens when criminal groups start robbing from each other.
You know it's nothing good, No, no.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
It could get really serious. I'm assuming let's try phone calls, gentlemen.
We got a folks who are waiting to talk to you.
We're going to start off with Tom, who's checking in
tonight from the Philippines. Bring Tom up for me, please.
Speaker 8 (25:34):
Rob Okay number one, your guest earlier brought up the
fact about marijuana being placed with very bad chemicals from China,
you know, herbicides or pesticides. I own a place in
West Virginia, there's been three people that have died smoking
marijuana lace with fentanyl. The other point I wanted to
make to one of your investigators is when I worked
(25:55):
in Alaska back in the late nineties and Valdiez, there
was an individual that the police busted his house because
this electric bill went through the roof. And what he
was doing is he had an indoor grow factory. He
got arrested. Unfortunately, the individual had a permit to grow
(26:16):
marijuana along with his two other friends. And anyway, I
guess my point being that are the law enforcement agencies
up there asking the power companies. Hey, if all of
a sudden there's this massive increase and a residential electric bill,
I mean, do they do any investigating on that?
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Yeah, that's your question.
Speaker 5 (26:40):
Yeah, Yeah. The short answer is yes, the law law
enforcement are able to ask the two big power companies
up here about usage, but only once they've developed some
kind of suspicion about the property. One of the things
that has played out both in the legislative session and
(27:00):
recently in a meeting of the Public Utilities Commission up
here is a debate over whether the electric companies should
be sharing that information just generally whether when they see
this suspicious use pattern they should share it. One of
the power companies, Versant. They actually offered to share a
list of all of the places where power usage is
(27:22):
just off the charts, and the Public Utilities Commission, which
is chaired by the former head of the main Democrat party,
said no, we don't want you to share that information.
So they're effectively blinding the police and allowing this activity
to continue. And they claim that it's in the name
of the privacy of power users.
Speaker 6 (27:42):
But I have to.
Speaker 5 (27:42):
Say that, you know, most people may not understand how
electricity works, you know, watts, killowalks, dules, you know, whatever.
It might vaults, it might just be white noise to them.
But the amount of electricity one of these marijuana sites uses,
I mean we're talking about you know, charging your test
LA acts, you know, one hundred and fifty times in
a month, Like that's how much electricity they're using in
(28:05):
a month. You know, it's like the power unit, the
power supply of a small grocery store is what they're consuming.
So we're not even in the same ballpark of what
your average homeowner would be consuming.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Marijuana growl would justify that as probable cause for a
search warrant.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
I mean, how can and they do, and they do
they do.
Speaker 5 (28:26):
I mean usually if you can, if you can combine
some observations of out of state plates, the smell of marijuana,
and then the power use records, that's usually enough for
a search warrant. But it becomes it becomes a huge
it's very resource intensive, and a lot of the local
police departments don't really know what they're dealing with. They
don't know what their authority is, considering it's legal in
(28:47):
some instances. So what they're up against is, you know,
they're dealing with an enemy that knows that it's camouflaged
specifically because if main.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Can handle this, can't they bring the DEA and help them?
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Yeah, they can.
Speaker 7 (29:03):
But the problem is is that the US attorneys generally
speaking around the country, they're not prosecuting these cases because
this mixed messages from the Department of Justice about marijuana.
It's under federal law, it's illegal, but in the states
like Massachusetts and these other states and Maine, they can
have these legalized operations. But it's like kind of like, look,
(29:25):
there's an old saying, when you're a leaders, you're supposed
to eliminate confusion, not created. The federal government's creating massive confusion.
So the state and locals are not very aggressively pursuing
these investigations. But the biggest point, and Steve gets a
lot of credit for me, because he's a reporter that's
out there knocking it dead, investigative reporting off the charts,
(29:45):
exposing this international national security threat not only in the
state of Maine but around the country. The only reason
people are starting to really get involved most of the
time is because they've been embarrassed because congressmen and Senate
is like Susan Collins as an example, she's raising hell
up there. She wants to know what is going on,
(30:06):
you know, with this with this problem. But the thing
is it's much bigger than anybody realizes because it's a
strategic attack against America and these these these politicians are
clueless and it's kind of like putting the handcuffs on
the investigators. So it's very sad, but it's also very serious.
And they're making billions of dollars. Like Steve said, money's
(30:28):
going back to China. And what Steve brought up to
is another problem they have, like these hit teams that
are going out and they're knocking off the stash houses
with the cash, and people are gonna get hurt. People
are gonna be murdered. There's going to be violence that's
increased because of the you know, it's all about the money,
right and a lot of these true, these transvessial groups,
it's about the money. So they're going to be going
(30:50):
after the money and these stash houses.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
It's going to get ugly.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
It's always it's always.
Speaker 8 (30:54):
One quick question. Go ahead, Tom, Yeah. So if we're
talking about the federal government, is this the same federal
government that people like me that order ammunition sent to
my house in West Virginia through my credit card, I
get monitored. But up in Maine, if someone's power bill
goes skyrocketing, that they're going to look the other way.
Speaker 9 (31:16):
Do I have that correct?
Speaker 7 (31:19):
Tom? I'm not a gun expert, but I can tell
you what. They definitely coming after your weapons and your ammol.
And they're letting these transnational criminals operate. And it's insanity
and it's a huge national security threat.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
Any manor who has been indicted for offenses related to
January sixth has faced higher bail and stiffer penalties than
any of the you know, I think we're coming up
on two dozen individuals that have been arrested at these sites.
So another component of this is not only are we
our criminal system, our law enforcement system is totally unequipped
(31:58):
to deal with the nature of this problem, but so
is our criminal justice system on the prosecution end. So
what you're seeing is, for example, in Machayas you see
how you have three people arrested. One of them has
a Chinese passport, two of them have Malaysian passports. The
Malaysians have no real ties to the US, no US identities.
They're given one thousand dollars bail, so of course they're
(32:21):
bailed out within twenty four hours. They've never been seen again,
they've never made a court hearing. You know, they'll delt.
I mean, they're probably at some different marijuana girl in
the state. But that happens time and time again where
you see very very low bail, not treated like a
flight risk that they are. They skip the court hearings.
So there's no not even a pretense that any of
these people will actually be punished for breaking our laws,
(32:43):
poisoning the environment, poisoning the marijuana supply, just totally disregarding
every aspect of our society in order to make a buck.
I mean, we can't punish any of those people. But
to the Department of Justices credit and to US Attorney
Darcy Mackelwaye's credit in Maine. Here she is moving to
these six properties that were involved in this activity and
(33:04):
were controlled by Asian transnational criminal organizations. I mean six
out of you know, three hundred or four hundred, I
mean it's a start.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
It's about two percent out of three hundred and six
would be two percent. Gentlemen, Thank you very much, Tom,
thank you for your questions. As always, I got to
take a break. I'm going to be back with my guest,
Steve Robinson, the editor in chief of the Main Wire,
and Derek Maltz, a longtime member of the Drug Enforcement
Agency and he also worked for ten years as a
(33:33):
special Agent in charge of the US Department of Justice
Special Operations Division. This is an incredible story. It was
an incredible story in January and February. The fact that
the Globe finally touched it today, I say, hats off
to the Globe, but work with your headline writers to
do a little better job than black market plotfarms on
(33:55):
rise in Maine. It's Chinese plot farms on rise in Maine.
Back in the night side right after this, Now.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Back to Dan Ray live from the Window World, Nice
Side Studios ONBZ News Radio.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
My guests will stay till eleven, but we will continue
this conversation into the eleven We'll also pick up our
conversation from nine o'clock tonight, So it's gonna be it's
gonna be a pulpery at eleven. In the meantime, I'm
gonna take them as they come along. Let me go
to Kevin in where's my bring up? Daryl in? I
(34:32):
got it here, Rob, I got him. Darrel in New Brunswick, Daryl, welcome.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
How are you hey?
Speaker 8 (34:36):
Dan?
Speaker 9 (34:36):
I'm doing great. Hopefully Steve and Derek are doing as well.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Yep. We're a little bit tight on time, buddy, So
whatever you can do, you go right ahead. Darryl in
New Brunswick, Canada.
Speaker 9 (34:46):
You bet something I came across in the news with
buddies in the military and Ercamp and Alberta Owt in Canada,
they had an underground grow up and they actually buried it.
And the way they traced it, guys, because they had
generators under the ground. They actually traced the fuel bills.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Yeah, well that's that's what they should be able to
do up in Maine. Quick comment on that, Steve, if
you'd like.
Speaker 5 (35:11):
Yeah, so generators are not really cost effective for them
to grow marijuana, but they might need them in case
of a power outage. In terms of making them underground,
I don't really know if that's going to be as
successful here in Maine because of the permafrost. We haven't
seen any examples of that. Plenty of dumping toxic chemicals underground,
but no grow operations underground.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Yeah, of course you Daryl, you know about the permafrost
up in New Brunswick. I'm sure.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (35:37):
Well, what they were doing is using seacams. They were
excavating and this bearing airring And.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Daryl, I want to I hate to cut you off here,
but I really want to try to get out the
callers in and focus a little bit more on Maine. Okay.
I appreciate you taking the time tonight, though.
Speaker 9 (35:50):
Nonetheless, keep we're going there.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Thanks man, appreciate it. Wayne is in Brockton Way. You're
going to get you in under the wire here go ahead.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
Wayne, here's a quick question. And on my comment, I
bet this didn't happen on the Trump much, did it. Well, No,
not at all.
Speaker 5 (36:07):
This all this all started. This all started really in
like late twenty twenty, but really ramped up twenty twenty one.
So you know, it might have started a little bit
under Trump, but the escalation and the number of Chinese
foreign nationals encountered at the southern border was pretty much
all under Biden. And the proliferation of these growth throughout
(36:28):
rural Maine was entirely under the watch of President Biden
and Democratic Governor Janet Mills.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
All Right, and I mean that's my Can I get
just a quick comment. I think that it goes right
to the top and Biden and or the propaganda machine
does not want to make this go nationals because if it'll,
it'll come back to illegal immigration and the finger will
point at Biden.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Wait, I disagree with you on man. We're international tonight
here on Nightside. You heard the Philippines and Canada. You're
we're reaching a big audience, as we do every night, Wayne,
I appreciate it very much.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
Thanks by thanks man.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
Okay, we're going to get Chris from the Cape Chris
on Cape Corr. Go right ahead, Chris. You were on
with Steve Robinson and Derek Maltz.
Speaker 10 (37:15):
Go right ahead, Chris, Hi, Dan and Steve and the
other front Steve, Derek, Steve.
Speaker 6 (37:27):
I had occasion to be a personal representative for an
estate that had what we thought was a very minor
valued property in mid Maine, and we went up there
and hired a real estate broker. In the course of
the review of the property, I noticed that he was
carrying heat he had on his He said, well, I
(37:51):
have to do that here. I said, well why, He
explained pretty much what you did. We had a bidding
war for the property. I had to get the best
price I could as a fiduciary to the estate. We
were in a bidding walk at an exorbitant amount of
money for what would be otherwise several years before, and
(38:13):
this was about three years ago, a valueless property. And
I then stumbled upon what I would consider a Pulitzer
Prize winning series that you had done. And I'm just stunned,
stunned that you have not received the recognition that you deserve.
I would urge all of the listeners to go to
(38:35):
your website and review that shocking revelation that you and
you alone have exposed, including in suburban areas of Maine,
fire hazards, injuries, blow ups. It's just a catastrophic a situation.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
Thank you for composing that, and I'm sorry, thank you.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
We're getting cramped on time, and I want to give
Steve Robinson a chance to plug the website. Thank you
Chris for your kind words. Steve, how can folks follow
you stories on the main Wire? Just give us the website.
Speaker 5 (39:19):
Yeah, if you go to vmainwire dot com, we actually
have a tab that just says tryad Weed. So if
you go to V main Wire or search for us,
Tryadweed main Wire whatever. But if you go to V
main Wire click tryad Weed. It's vmainwire dot com. Our
full series is laid out there and they can go
back and see all the stories. And Dan, again, I'll
give you credit because you are one of the areas
(39:41):
where we've actually gotten recognition for the work that we've
done on this particular series. So it's coming, it's coming.
More people are paying attention to it, and Kevin cullen'stealing
our story is probably the best indication of that.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
All right, all right, we'll let Kevin up off the mat.
Thank you, thank you, thank you so much, Steve. I'll
be back in touch. Derek Maltz as always, thank you
for your career and your work on behalf of the
American people. We will stay with you in this one
as well, my friend, and say hi to the boys
in Blue dinner and wherever the heck you are.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
Okay, thank you, I appreciate it. Good job, Steve. Thank you, guys.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
We'll talk soon. We'll be back right after the eleven.
We're going to pick up on the story that we
were talking about at ten, which is the after we
were talking about at nine, which is the Mcast stores
in the Ferry the Boster Globe to be able to
deliver their newspapers effectively
It's with Dan Ray. I'm Deli feazy Boston.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
We won't get back.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
To the story at eleven o'clock. My problems with the
Boston Globe. But I have to give a bit of
an acknowledgment to the Globe today because Kevin Cullen wrote
a piece about black market pot farms on rise in
Maine remote areas, a draw to those with crops to hide.
The headline somewhat misleading because the headline would make you
(00:30):
think that somehow there's a bunch of Americans up there
growing illegal plot farms in Maine. These are folks who
are being funded by the government of China. The other
point I want to make is that as good a
reporter as Kevin is, and he's a friend of mine,
he's a little late to the story on this one.
Because this story was broken over a year ago by
(00:50):
Steve Robinson of The Main Wire, which is a digital
news source in Maine. We're delighted to have Steve Robinson
back with us tonight. We also will have Derek Maults
in a moment. He's a retired drug Enforcement administrator administration
twenty eight years of dedicated service and he has worked
(01:11):
on this project as well to you and I Steve,
and hello to you. And I know Derek is listening.
Derek will get you in a moment. We talked about this,
this story you broke a year ago. It was brought
to my attention and we gave you all the credit
in the world. Fortunately Globe didn't have the I guess,
the ability or the class to give you some credit
(01:34):
and a story that you really have been working on
now for months and months and months. Welcome back to Nightside.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
How are you, hey, Dan?
Speaker 5 (01:41):
Thanks for having me on it. I do out of
the gate. I have to give some credit to Jenny Tare,
who's now a New York Post immigration reporter down in Texas.
But she was the one who published the original leaked
memo revealing the existence of these sites nationwide. All I
did was, you know, take her q that there were
hundreds and hundreds of these in Maine, and I went
(02:03):
out and found them and tracked down the owners and
some of the financing behind it all. But I you know,
while we're talking about giving proper.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
No, I'm not with you.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
Yeah that you're wrong all.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
You're a class accurate journalist and in the in the
truest sense, of the word. Uh, Maine is a big state.
People don't realize how big Maine is. They think of
it as one of six New England states. But I
would bet you that the the the area of the
state of Maine is as big as Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts,
New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
Well, yeah, you're absolutely right. All the other New England
states can fit inside Maine with some room to spare,
I believe.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
And so in place, it's a perfect place to do
what these these international groups u transnational groups are doing.
Speaker 6 (02:56):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
The funding for this and if I'm in correct here,
feel free to correct me. But my recollection when we
talked and what you have discovered is that the funding
for this is is actually coming from China and.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
A lot of the fund the funding. Yeah, so the
funding is coming from Asian transnational criminal organization aka the
Chinese mafia. And these these criminal organizations exist in a
kind of uneasy partnership with the Chinese government itself where
they kind of allow them to continue to operate as
(03:32):
long as it's advancing the goals of the Communist Party.
So we don't know that there's a you know, a
transfer of money coming directly from the Communist Party to
buy these properties. But we do know that there's there's
money going back, So that's Homeland security money going back.
Speaker 6 (03:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Well they just like with any any group, you're paying tribute.
They're paying tribute. But the bottom line is this marijuana
now is legal in Maine legal am I correct on that?
Speaker 5 (04:03):
Yeah, marijuana is legal in Maine. But there's a medicinal
program and there's an adult use recreational program, and both
of them have guardrails and regulations and you have to
be licensed. And what we're finding is that these the
illicit Chinese marijuana grows break all of the rules. In
most cases, in ninety nine percent of cases, don't even
(04:26):
try to get a permit, and when they do get
a permit, they still break all of the rules. And
they're also contaminating their marijuana with dangerous pesticides like paklobrizol
is one, which is an endricin disruptor. So if you're
using illicit cannabis that you know, you don't know where
(04:46):
it came from, well there's a chance that it's you know,
some of the marijuana grown at one of the two
hundred and seventy locations in northern Maine that's been tainted
with some pretty dangerous pesticides.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Yeah, and this, by the way, was it's one of
the underlying arguments for the legalization of marijuana. They said,
get it out of the hands of illicit dealers, whether
it's you know, underworld mafia, whatever you want to call it.
Make sure it's regulated and it can generate some tax
revenue for all the states. I think probably right now
(05:19):
and I'm guessing at least more than half the states
now allow medicinal and probably nearly as many allow recreational marijuana.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
Yeah, or it's decriminalized to some extent. But you know,
I'll say that the story of Oklahoma has told us
that there's really whether you're calling it medicinal or recreational,
there's not much difference. If you regalize the large, large
scale cultivation of the product, you're going to get criminal organizations,
and the Chinese criminal organizations appear to be especially adept
(05:56):
at it. And I'll say that, you know, there's if
Kevin Cullen is looking for stories, he could come up
with one of his own right in Massachusetts, because in
Hamden just this week there was a bust of the
same thing that we've seen here in Maine time and
time again, a residential property that has been hollowed out
and converted into a marijuana wanna grow and over I
(06:19):
think a thousand plants were seized. And that's just, you know,
just one, and I have plenty of reasons to believe,
but there are more in that here.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
The irony here is you've done all this great work
on this. You have exposed this digital news site, main Wire,
and you're the editor in chief of the main Wire.
You've done all of this great work which could put you,
by the way, in some jeopardy, to be honest with you,
because you are interrupting a transnational criminal operation, which, by
(06:52):
the way, as I understand it is also be fun
being funded through a bank in New York City which
has some very interest being connections with monies that the
federal government has approved for small US businesses. Am I
recalling that correctly?
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Yeah, I mean you're right about the role of the
bank in this. But I'll just say that, you know,
I'm actually I'm I'm much safer than the last subject
of one of Kevin Cullins columns. That one ended up dying.
So I just consider myself lucky to be alive after
having a nearbrush with him. Journalistically speaking, But the bank
you're talking about is called Quantic Bank, and it's a
(07:36):
bank in New York that had not done any really
any loans to speak of in the state of Maine
until about twenty twenty and then started making loans exclusively
to people from outside of the state. And when I
looked closer at this bank, it turns out that it's
a Community Development Finance institution which the US Treasury Department
(07:56):
operates this fund to encourage loans to marginalized communities. But
this was taken advantage of by the Chinese criminal organizations,
and Quantic Bank saw in this a new market and
a new opportunity, so they advertised on the chat app
we Chat. They had Chinese language or Chinese speaking loan
(08:17):
officers who targeted the communities in New York where they
knew these loans would be successful. Now, Quantic might not
have known what was going to happen when these groups
began buying up those properties. They might not have asked
too many questions, But there's no denying that the US
Treasury Department helped subsidize loans for properties that later became
(08:40):
illicit marijuana grows, and some of them have actually been busted.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
So once this bank and it became knowledge that this
bank was lending money, not necessarily to American businesses, but
they were lending money to what were in effect transnational
Chinese marijuana growing businesses, which growing marijuana privately for public
consumption for public sale is still illegal, as I understand
(09:09):
that in most states that just because marijuana has been legalized,
when it's controlled by the state and people pay taxes.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
And all of that. It would be like if I'm
bruined beer in my seller and I'm selling cases of
beer out the back door. You know that some federal
regulator is going to come knock on my door and say, hey,
wait a second, Beer's legal, but not the type of
beer that you're bruin on your cellar and selling it
out the door and getting around paying any sort of taxes.
(09:37):
That's the irony here. And I just can't believe that,
well I do believe, because I see it that our
government is so asleep. My guest is Steve Robinson. He's
an excellent journalist. He works for a digital news site
called The main Wire. I had Steve with us two
or three times last winter talking about the story that
(10:01):
The Globe Today wrote about Steve. You tell me, this
is the first time the Globe has touched this story.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
Yeah, this is This is the first time I think
the Globe has mentioned it, which I mean isn't surprising.
They consider themselves the paper of record for New England,
but they don't really touch on too many stories from Maine.
But you know, Dan, I will give you credit because
very early on you saw our reporting on this, and
you know, I think took some professional risks having you know,
an independent journalist on to talk about it, you know,
(10:30):
someone that maybe a lot of your listeners in Massachusetts
hadn't heard of. But I think that the one of
the things that we've been very studious about, knowing that
our work is going to be held to maybe a
higher standard or a different standard, is to document it
with pictures and copies of real estate records, and to
do as much as we possibly could to you know,
(10:52):
show people what exactly leads us to have the interest
we do, make the claims we do, and report the
story is that we do. In Kevin Collins case, it
appears that he just read my stories and then called
some of the people who are mentioned in my stories.
I mean, there's information then in his story that has
only been reported in one other place about you know,
(11:14):
show companies in one of these busts. And I know
from talking with my sources that Kevin was referred to
my work and quickly changed the subject during the phone call. So,
I mean, it's it's very clear what happened here. And
you would think that a journalist like Kevin, who's on
thin ice ever since he was lot caught lying by
Kirk Minihan about the Boston bombing, you think he'd be
(11:36):
a little more careful about that kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Yeah. Again, I don't want to make this an too
much about Kevin, but the one thing I did want
to mention is that most of the Globe reporters, it'll
say so and so can be reached at you know,
the name at the Globe dot com, and Kevin he
gets sort of an exceptional reference. Kevin Collen is a
(11:58):
Globe reporter and columnist who Rome's New England.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
This office is the streets stand. He doesn't need to
You don't need to. You don't need to be in
an office waiting by the phone when you're out there
getting scoops. But hey, I while we're while we're talking
about his work, I've got, you know, I get another
story for him. We've reported that the uh A California
State Agency gave a briefing to main law enforcement, which
(12:27):
we've got to handle a copy of. And it turns
out that they're, in addition to the normal range of
pesticides and fungicides that they're illegally applying to the marijuana cropps,
uh they're also importing Chinese made pesticides and fungicides into California.
And the California investigators were able to find that there's
(12:48):
an address in Maine where these products are being shipped.
There's also a hydroponics store in Massachusetts where some of
these products are being received. And these the reason why
these pesticides are so dangerous is because one, you know,
they're made in China. They're so hazardous to your health.
They're banned in China. I mean, you know, the Chinese
government not really known for its you know, concern for
(13:12):
human health or environmental health, but they won't allow these
pesticides to be used. They're banned. There's no legitimate use
of them in the United States. So these are wildly
dangerous fatal carcinogenic will cause. You know, we don't even know.
The problems are so dangerous we stopped even studying just
how dangerous they can be. But the reason why this
is so alarming is because the testing facilities in Massachusetts, California,
(13:36):
in Maine where you would take a sample of marijuana
to have it tested for pesticides, don't actually screen for
these Chinese made pesticides. So you could take a sample
of marijuana grown at a site that has used these
dangerous chemicals, get it tested, and your report card comes
back a plus ten out of ten, no harmful ingredients,
no pesticides or fundicides, when in fact, you're going to
(13:59):
be consuming some of the most dangerous pesticides mankind has
ever created, and you'll never know until you're experiencing the
unintended consequences.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Wow, this would like be a a state trooper who
has a breathalyzer that just doesn't test for alcohol. So
they pull your overack and you do a breathalyze and
testing what it is you know, even though you're clean
as a whistle buddy, go ahead and drive on my Yes,
the Steve Robinson I got to take a quick breaks.
Steve wea come back. I'm going to talk to you
a little bit and get some phone calls. This is
(14:29):
important stuff, Okay, this is important stuff because most people
voted to legalize marijuana, which is fine, Okay, that's what
the majority of people want. As long as they were controls,
that's how it was sold up to us. And now
the government is turning their a blind eye to transnational
organizations that have two hundred and seventy you heard that
(14:50):
number that Steve mentioned, two hundred and seventy illegal growing
operations in the state of Maine alone. What we're going
to find out if the government in Maine what they
have done on this will continue on Nightside if you
like to join the conversation and give Steve Robinson a
kudo for his work. He broke the story a year ago,
(15:10):
and the Globe is touching in for the first time
today again, our newspaper of record six seven, two, five,
four ten thirty six one seven, nine three, one ten
thirty We brought back will also be joined by Derek
Maltz after the break as well.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
We're being joined by Derek Maltz, who's a special was
a special Agent in charge of the United States Department
of Justice Special Operations Division for almost ten years. Before
he left the federal government, he had been the chief
of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force, which is
the oldest and largest drug task force in America. Derek Maltz,
welcome back to Nightside. You have worked with Steve Robinson
(15:55):
on this project. You were with us in the radio
last winter as well. It's interesting, Derek. I made the
point to Steve earlier that the Globe headline on the
front page, to their credit, simply says black market plotfarms
on rise in Maine. What it should say to be
accurate Chinese plotfarms unrise in Maine. Your reaction to that, Derek.
Speaker 7 (16:20):
Dan, thanks for having me back, and I really appreciate
the call because I've been obsessed with this topic for
a while now, because obviously the Chinese transnational criminals and
not only bombing our country with synthetic drugs, but now
they're very strategic in what they're doing with the marijuana,
and all over the Northeast it's saturated, but not just
(16:42):
the northeast. I mean it's around the country now, Oklahoma
being ground zero. We have Chinese grow operations all over America.
But the problem is is that they're importing Chinese testicides
and they're spraying these chemicals on the crop, and then
people are smoking this stuff off not realizing what they're
ingesting into their lungs. So it's a huge national security thread.
(17:05):
But I will make it clear that we're like sixty
days or whatever it is away from the election. So
all these news outlets now are starting reports stuff all
of a sudden, like and they've been missing the boat
because it's been going on a long time.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Yeah, well that's the idea. What has the DEEA been doing?
I mean that's look. You know, it used to be
that if somebody was caught smoking a joint walking across
the Boston Common, they would be arrested. I'm not a druggie.
My drug is of choice's course light. But hey, it's
legal now, so we got to deal with it. But
they sold us on the idea of making it legal,
(17:40):
so we would get this sort of illegal activity us
a legal activity out of here, and the Chinese have
filled the vacuum. Is that not what's happened, one.
Speaker 7 (17:49):
Hundred percent, that's what's happening. They're very strategic. They wanted
to stabilize this country using chemicals, and what's happened in
his look the Massachusetts State Police and I worked with
them very closely, and as a matter of fact, I'm
at a conference with a large contingent from mass State Police.
They have one of the best cases going on in
America with the DEA. They're doing phenomenal work. Okay, so
(18:13):
I want to give them a lot of credit for
what they're doing, but the problem is it's overwhelming because
America is very soft on crime. America is very soft
on marijuana. We're legalizing marijuana, we're putting out messages that
it's safe, but nobody's paying attention. And your headlines further
supports what I'm about to say. They're not highlighting that
(18:33):
it's Chinese nationals that are running these operations to destroy America.
And it's not the part that people think about when
they think, oh, marijuana safe. You know three five percent THCHC.
This is thirty percent THC. It's causing marijuana schizophrenia in
marijuana psychosis, depression, anxiety, and our younger population thinks it's
(18:54):
safe to go ahead and smoke this stuff. So the
news organization is the federal government is not putting out
the proper information to the public.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Well, let me let me just say thank you to you,
and thank you to Steve. And by the way, when
you talk to any of the Massachusetts State Police detectives,
let them know you're on night side with Dan Ray.
Most of them know me. My brothers are retired state
police lieutenant up here in Massachusetts. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (19:16):
And by the way, they told me that because I
did speak to one of the bosses, one of the majors,
and I talked to them about it. And you know,
bottom line is is they are out front. They're doing
a great job, but it's an overwhelming problem. It's throughout,
it's throughout the country. It's not just in the northeast.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Yeah. Well, I remember when they were buying up farmland
in North Dakota.
Speaker 7 (19:36):
And but hold on, Dan, let's make this clear. They're
collecting multi millions of dollars in cash from the cartels
throughout the country, not just North Dakota. They're buying property,
they're buying real estate, they're investing in farmland like you said,
but not just in North Dakota, all over the place.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Oh no, I know that. The only reason I mentioned
North Dakota was the guy who was the mayor up there,
I think is Grand Forks, North Dakota. Ironically, it happened
to be a former NHL player and I had him
on the show. This was one that was very close
to I think the mine at North North I think
it was mineut North Dakota Air Force Base. So so yeah,
(20:16):
I'm following this, believe me, as closely as I can.
But the real work on the ground is being done
by guys like you and Steve Robinson, Steve weaken Back.
I want to get to phone calls, but I also
want to ask you. Since there's been so much focus
on Maine, I'm assuming that Maine is going after these.
I think you told me this. Two hundred and seventy
of these, and you can spot them. All you have
(20:37):
to do is fly a drone and you see these
abandoned farmhouses with the with the curtains close tight and
huge electrical you know, generators outside far outside, outsized in
terms of size. So you don't have to be elliott
Ness to know what's going on. We're gonna take a
(21:00):
quick break. We're going into national tonight, gentlemen, because my
first call is from the Philippines. My second call is
from New Brunswick, Canada, and we'll stick. I'd love to
keep you both until eleven o'clock if we could, because
everybody wants to talk to you, all right, stay right there. Yes,
Steve Robinson of the Main Wire and Derek Maltz, a
former Special Agent in charge of the US Department of
(21:22):
Justice Special Operations Division for almost ten years. These are
good men who are looking out. This is not about
you know what you know, the anti merril. This is
not an anti marijuana story. This is a story why
are we allowing Chinese transnational organizations to committed this country
(21:43):
buy p land uh sell pedal tainted marijuana on a
black market where a lot of kids will buy it
because it's a little less expensive than the marijuana that
is now run through marijuana stores in places like Maine
in Massachusetts. This is truly criminal behavior, and we're finally
talking about it in the Boston Globe. But that headline
(22:03):
should have said Chinese plot farms on rise in Maine,
not just black market plotfarms on rise. In Maine. We'll
be back right after this. As you can tell, I'm
wound up on this one.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
With Dan Ray on Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Back with my guest Steve Robinson of The Main Wire,
Derek Maltz x DEEA talking about illegal transnational organized crime
Chinese plotfarms across America. We're focusing on Maine because the
Boston Globe a year late to the story. Kevin Collin
filed a report from Machias, Maine in Today's Boston Globe
(22:49):
a year late, and again the headline is misleading. The
headline says black market plotfarms on rise and Maine. Those
crazy teams up in Maine must be running some black
market platforms. No they're not. They're international, transnational Chinese organized
crime that's doing this very quickly, Steve, because I want
to get to phone calls, and I will get to
phone calls very very quickly. How many potfarms are up
(23:13):
in Maine? And what do you think the estimate is
in terms of the value of their crops? Totally any idea?
Speaker 5 (23:20):
Well, well, I mean I think we're over three hundred
at this point, and I know the original Homeland Security
escident was two seventy or more. But I think that
we're well over. That's also shown that they're connected with
some well known restaurants in the area, some seemingly legitimate businesses.
So in terms of value, I mean, we're talking in
(23:40):
the billions of dollars that they've made by being able
to grow marijuana tax free, not paying fees in most cases,
not paying their workers, and then you know, violating federal
law by smuggling and out of the state to sell
it at a premium in black markets. But I'll tell
you they're a little bit poorer than they were at
the beginning of this year because there's been a trend
(24:03):
now that we've reported on that law enforcement sources have
talked to us about that some of the cash stashes
for Chinese marijuana growers are being robbed, sophisticated burglaries happening
after surveillance of the properties, and they're making off with
fifty one hundred, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars just
(24:24):
bags of cash, and oftentimes not calling the police about it.
But what we do know is that lawn, well, exactly,
how exactly do you explain that you're you know, sitting
on fifty thousand dollars cash. But law law enforcement in Maine,
and this is actually a new England wide phenomenon. But
in Maine they believe that it's triad organizations, other criminal
(24:49):
Chinese criminal organizations are robbing each other. In the southern
part of the state, they actually think that it's Mexican
cartels knocking off Chinese cash stashes. I mean, when Derek
talks about the role of the cartel organizations both in
Massachusetts and Maine, has something not to be downplayed there
because you might think that, you know, what's the harm,
(25:11):
They're just growing marijuana. But you know, Derek can elaborate
on what happens when criminal groups start robbing from each other.
You know it's nothing good, No, no.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
It could get really serious. I'm assuming let's try phone calls, gentlemen.
We got a folks who are waiting to talk to you.
We're going to start off with Tom, who's checking in
tonight from the Philippines. Bring Tom up for me, please.
Speaker 8 (25:34):
Rob Okay number one, your guest earlier brought up the
fact about marijuana being placed with very bad chemicals from China,
you know, herbicides or pesticides. I own a place in
West Virginia, there's been three people that have died smoking
marijuana lace with fentanyl. The other point I wanted to
make to one of your investigators is when I worked
(25:55):
in Alaska back in the late nineties and Valdiez, there
was an individual that the police busted his house because
this electric bill went through the roof. And what he
was doing is he had an indoor grow factory. He
got arrested. Unfortunately, the individual had a permit to grow
(26:16):
marijuana along with his two other friends. And anyway, I
guess my point being that are the law enforcement agencies
up there asking the power companies. Hey, if all of
a sudden there's this massive increase and a residential electric bill,
I mean, do they do any investigating on that?
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Yeah, that's your question.
Speaker 5 (26:40):
Yeah, Yeah. The short answer is yes, the law law
enforcement are able to ask the two big power companies
up here about usage, but only once they've developed some
kind of suspicion about the property. One of the things
that has played out both in the legislative session and
(27:00):
recently in a meeting of the Public Utilities Commission up
here is a debate over whether the electric companies should
be sharing that information just generally whether when they see
this suspicious use pattern they should share it. One of
the power companies, Versant. They actually offered to share a
list of all of the places where power usage is
(27:22):
just off the charts, and the Public Utilities Commission, which
is chaired by the former head of the main Democrat party,
said no, we don't want you to share that information.
So they're effectively blinding the police and allowing this activity
to continue. And they claim that it's in the name
of the privacy of power users.
Speaker 6 (27:42):
But I have to.
Speaker 5 (27:42):
Say that, you know, most people may not understand how
electricity works, you know, watts, killowalks, dules, you know, whatever.
It might vaults, it might just be white noise to them.
But the amount of electricity one of these marijuana sites uses,
I mean we're talking about you know, charging your test
LA acts, you know, one hundred and fifty times in
a month, Like that's how much electricity they're using in
(28:05):
a month. You know, it's like the power unit, the
power supply of a small grocery store is what they're consuming.
So we're not even in the same ballpark of what
your average homeowner would be consuming.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Marijuana growl would justify that as probable cause for a
search warrant.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
I mean, how can and they do, and they do
they do.
Speaker 5 (28:26):
I mean usually if you can, if you can combine
some observations of out of state plates, the smell of marijuana,
and then the power use records, that's usually enough for
a search warrant. But it becomes it becomes a huge
it's very resource intensive, and a lot of the local
police departments don't really know what they're dealing with. They
don't know what their authority is, considering it's legal in
(28:47):
some instances. So what they're up against is, you know,
they're dealing with an enemy that knows that it's camouflaged
specifically because if main.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Can handle this, can't they bring the DEA and help them?
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Yeah, they can.
Speaker 7 (29:03):
But the problem is is that the US attorneys generally
speaking around the country, they're not prosecuting these cases because
this mixed messages from the Department of Justice about marijuana.
It's under federal law, it's illegal, but in the states
like Massachusetts and these other states and Maine, they can
have these legalized operations. But it's like kind of like, look,
(29:25):
there's an old saying, when you're a leaders, you're supposed
to eliminate confusion, not created. The federal government's creating massive confusion.
So the state and locals are not very aggressively pursuing
these investigations. But the biggest point, and Steve gets a
lot of credit for me, because he's a reporter that's
out there knocking it dead, investigative reporting off the charts,
(29:45):
exposing this international national security threat not only in the
state of Maine but around the country. The only reason
people are starting to really get involved most of the
time is because they've been embarrassed because congressmen and Senate
is like Susan Collins as an example, she's raising hell
up there. She wants to know what is going on,
(30:06):
you know, with this with this problem. But the thing
is it's much bigger than anybody realizes because it's a
strategic attack against America and these these these politicians are
clueless and it's kind of like putting the handcuffs on
the investigators. So it's very sad, but it's also very serious.
And they're making billions of dollars. Like Steve said, money's
(30:28):
going back to China. And what Steve brought up to
is another problem they have, like these hit teams that
are going out and they're knocking off the stash houses
with the cash, and people are gonna get hurt. People
are gonna be murdered. There's going to be violence that's
increased because of the you know, it's all about the money,
right and a lot of these true, these transvessial groups,
it's about the money. So they're going to be going
(30:50):
after the money and these stash houses.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
It's going to get ugly.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
It's always it's always.
Speaker 8 (30:54):
One quick question. Go ahead, Tom, Yeah. So if we're
talking about the federal government, is this the same federal
government that people like me that order ammunition sent to
my house in West Virginia through my credit card, I
get monitored. But up in Maine, if someone's power bill
goes skyrocketing, that they're going to look the other way.
Speaker 9 (31:16):
Do I have that correct?
Speaker 7 (31:19):
Tom? I'm not a gun expert, but I can tell
you what. They definitely coming after your weapons and your ammol.
And they're letting these transnational criminals operate. And it's insanity
and it's a huge national security threat.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
Any manor who has been indicted for offenses related to
January sixth has faced higher bail and stiffer penalties than
any of the you know, I think we're coming up
on two dozen individuals that have been arrested at these sites.
So another component of this is not only are we
our criminal system, our law enforcement system is totally unequipped
(31:58):
to deal with the nature of this problem, but so
is our criminal justice system on the prosecution end. So
what you're seeing is, for example, in Machayas you see
how you have three people arrested. One of them has
a Chinese passport, two of them have Malaysian passports. The
Malaysians have no real ties to the US, no US identities.
They're given one thousand dollars bail, so of course they're
(32:21):
bailed out within twenty four hours. They've never been seen again,
they've never made a court hearing. You know, they'll delt.
I mean, they're probably at some different marijuana girl in
the state. But that happens time and time again where
you see very very low bail, not treated like a
flight risk that they are. They skip the court hearings.
So there's no not even a pretense that any of
these people will actually be punished for breaking our laws,
(32:43):
poisoning the environment, poisoning the marijuana supply, just totally disregarding
every aspect of our society in order to make a buck.
I mean, we can't punish any of those people. But
to the Department of Justices credit and to US Attorney
Darcy Mackelwaye's credit in Maine. Here she is moving to
these six properties that were involved in this activity and
(33:04):
were controlled by Asian transnational criminal organizations. I mean six
out of you know, three hundred or four hundred, I
mean it's a start.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
It's about two percent out of three hundred and six
would be two percent. Gentlemen, Thank you very much, Tom,
thank you for your questions. As always, I got to
take a break. I'm going to be back with my guest,
Steve Robinson, the editor in chief of the Main Wire,
and Derek Maltz, a longtime member of the Drug Enforcement
Agency and he also worked for ten years as a
(33:33):
special Agent in charge of the US Department of Justice
Special Operations Division. This is an incredible story. It was
an incredible story in January and February. The fact that
the Globe finally touched it today, I say, hats off
to the Globe, but work with your headline writers to
do a little better job than black market plotfarms on
(33:55):
rise in Maine. It's Chinese plot farms on rise in Maine.
Back in the night side right after this, Now.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Back to Dan Ray live from the Window World, Nice
Side Studios ONBZ News Radio.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
My guests will stay till eleven, but we will continue
this conversation into the eleven We'll also pick up our
conversation from nine o'clock tonight, So it's gonna be it's
gonna be a pulpery at eleven. In the meantime, I'm
gonna take them as they come along. Let me go
to Kevin in where's my bring up? Daryl in? I
(34:32):
got it here, Rob, I got him. Darrel in New Brunswick, Daryl, welcome.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
How are you hey?
Speaker 8 (34:36):
Dan?
Speaker 9 (34:36):
I'm doing great. Hopefully Steve and Derek are doing as well.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Yep. We're a little bit tight on time, buddy, So
whatever you can do, you go right ahead. Darryl in
New Brunswick, Canada.
Speaker 9 (34:46):
You bet something I came across in the news with
buddies in the military and Ercamp and Alberta Owt in Canada,
they had an underground grow up and they actually buried it.
And the way they traced it, guys, because they had
generators under the ground. They actually traced the fuel bills.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Yeah, well that's that's what they should be able to
do up in Maine. Quick comment on that, Steve, if
you'd like.
Speaker 5 (35:11):
Yeah, so generators are not really cost effective for them
to grow marijuana, but they might need them in case
of a power outage. In terms of making them underground,
I don't really know if that's going to be as
successful here in Maine because of the permafrost. We haven't
seen any examples of that. Plenty of dumping toxic chemicals underground,
but no grow operations underground.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Yeah, of course you Daryl, you know about the permafrost
up in New Brunswick. I'm sure.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (35:37):
Well, what they were doing is using seacams. They were
excavating and this bearing airring And.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Daryl, I want to I hate to cut you off here,
but I really want to try to get out the
callers in and focus a little bit more on Maine. Okay.
I appreciate you taking the time tonight, though.
Speaker 9 (35:50):
Nonetheless, keep we're going there.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Thanks man, appreciate it. Wayne is in Brockton Way. You're
going to get you in under the wire here go ahead.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
Wayne, here's a quick question. And on my comment, I
bet this didn't happen on the Trump much, did it. Well, No,
not at all.
Speaker 5 (36:07):
This all this all started. This all started really in
like late twenty twenty, but really ramped up twenty twenty one.
So you know, it might have started a little bit
under Trump, but the escalation and the number of Chinese
foreign nationals encountered at the southern border was pretty much
all under Biden. And the proliferation of these growth throughout
(36:28):
rural Maine was entirely under the watch of President Biden
and Democratic Governor Janet Mills.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
All Right, and I mean that's my Can I get
just a quick comment. I think that it goes right
to the top and Biden and or the propaganda machine
does not want to make this go nationals because if it'll,
it'll come back to illegal immigration and the finger will
point at Biden.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Wait, I disagree with you on man. We're international tonight
here on Nightside. You heard the Philippines and Canada. You're
we're reaching a big audience, as we do every night, Wayne,
I appreciate it very much.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
Thanks by thanks man.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
Okay, we're going to get Chris from the Cape Chris
on Cape Corr. Go right ahead, Chris. You were on
with Steve Robinson and Derek Maltz.
Speaker 10 (37:15):
Go right ahead, Chris, Hi, Dan and Steve and the
other front Steve, Derek, Steve.
Speaker 6 (37:27):
I had occasion to be a personal representative for an
estate that had what we thought was a very minor
valued property in mid Maine, and we went up there
and hired a real estate broker. In the course of
the review of the property, I noticed that he was
carrying heat he had on his He said, well, I
(37:51):
have to do that here. I said, well why, He
explained pretty much what you did. We had a bidding
war for the property. I had to get the best
price I could as a fiduciary to the estate. We
were in a bidding walk at an exorbitant amount of
money for what would be otherwise several years before, and
(38:13):
this was about three years ago, a valueless property. And
I then stumbled upon what I would consider a Pulitzer
Prize winning series that you had done. And I'm just stunned,
stunned that you have not received the recognition that you deserve.
I would urge all of the listeners to go to
(38:35):
your website and review that shocking revelation that you and
you alone have exposed, including in suburban areas of Maine,
fire hazards, injuries, blow ups. It's just a catastrophic a situation.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
Thank you for composing that, and I'm sorry, thank you.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
We're getting cramped on time, and I want to give
Steve Robinson a chance to plug the website. Thank you
Chris for your kind words. Steve, how can folks follow
you stories on the main Wire? Just give us the website.
Speaker 5 (39:19):
Yeah, if you go to vmainwire dot com, we actually
have a tab that just says tryad Weed. So if
you go to V main Wire or search for us,
Tryadweed main Wire whatever. But if you go to V
main Wire click tryad Weed. It's vmainwire dot com. Our
full series is laid out there and they can go
back and see all the stories. And Dan, again, I'll
give you credit because you are one of the areas
(39:41):
where we've actually gotten recognition for the work that we've
done on this particular series. So it's coming, it's coming.
More people are paying attention to it, and Kevin cullen'stealing
our story is probably the best indication of that.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
All right, all right, we'll let Kevin up off the mat.
Thank you, thank you, thank you so much, Steve. I'll
be back in touch. Derek Maltz as always, thank you
for your career and your work on behalf of the
American people. We will stay with you in this one
as well, my friend, and say hi to the boys
in Blue dinner and wherever the heck you are.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
Okay, thank you, I appreciate it. Good job, Steve. Thank you, guys.
Speaker 3 (40:18):
We'll talk soon. We'll be back right after the eleven.
We're going to pick up on the story that we
were talking about at ten, which is the after we
were talking about at nine, which is the Mcast stores
in the Ferry the Boster Globe to be able to
deliver their newspapers effectively
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