MACHIAS, Maine — The blue four-bedroom house, with two red barns out back and neighbors few and far between, looked like any number of nondescript farmhouses that dot the sparsely populated towns of central and northern Maine.
But last November, on a crisp fall day, as he got out of his cruiser to check out a tip about suspicious activity at the remote home, Machias Police Lieutenant Tim Mace knew something was off. The shades were drawn. A new industrial-sized electrical box on the side of one of the barns was preposterously large.
“The electrical box looked like it belonged on a Walmart,” Mace said.
As he walked around the house, his nostrils filled with the pungent aroma of marijuana. It turned out to be an illicit marijuana cultivation operation. It was also some of the first hard evidence of a new phenomenon that is alarming local, state, and federal officials: a proliferation of highly organized criminal enterprises growing black market marijuana.
Despite marijuana becoming legal in more parts of the country, illegal growing operations have been found in some 20 states across the country in recent years. And officials believe Maine, whose vast wild expanses make them relatively easy to hide, is the latest hot spot. Since Mace literally sniffed out the operation in Machias last fall, officials have obtained search warrants for some 45 rural properties in Maine, seizing tens of thousands of pot plants, tons of processed marijuana, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. Federal authorities say they have identified at least 100 illegal cultivation sites across mostly remote counties in central Maine.
Legal cannabis dispensaries began opening in Maine in 2020, and officials believe black marketeers began looking to buy distressed properties in rural Maine to set up cultivation operations shortly after that, thinking law enforcement wouldn’t pay much attention now that recreational sales were permitted. Officials believe most if not all of the marijuana grown illicitly in Maine, bypassing taxes and strict regulation, is shipped to black markets in New York and Boston.
Police say those arrested so far in Maine, as well as those fronting shell companies that bought some of the properties, have links to China, and they believe organized crime groups in China may be behind many, if not all, of the operations.
All this is putting a huge strain on resources for small police departments, including the sheriff’s departments that provide most law enforcement in rural Maine.
Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster’s department, which serves 50,000 people in central Maine, has conducted nearly half of the 45 raids of suspected illicit cultivation sites. In the past year, Lancaster’s deputies arrested 11, confiscated more than 25,000 plants, 600 pounds of processed marijuana, five vehicles, and nearly $50,000 in cash. He said those arrested are just foot soldiers in a sophisticated, larger enterprise.
“I made this a priority because there’s no quality control here, they’re using chemicals that could kill people,” Lancaster said. “We have the intelligence to do this, but we don’t have the resources. I can’t do this by myself.”
It is labor-intensive work. While Mace could smell the marijuana growing inside the house in Machias, he needed more than that to prove probable cause for legally entering. In what has become standard operating procedure in cases like this, he obtained a subpoena for the electrical bills at the house, which had been purchased in December 2021 by what prosecutors say is a front company incorporated in Massachusetts. The bills showed the house was drawing more than 10 times as much electricity as the average home.
Ten days before Christmas, local deputies and state and federal authorities raided the farmhouse, arresting three men and seizing 2,608 plants and more than 100 pounds of processed marijuana.
A written declaration filed in federal court, identified a woman from Brooklyn, N.Y., as manager of the property for a company based in Webster, Mass., that prosecutors said was a front for the illegal growing operation. The woman, Fanny Sun, insisted she had no idea what was going on, according to the declaration, and claimed she only visited the house once a month, driving 10 hours to collect the $4,000 monthly rent — a figure prosecutors say is absurdly high for a home purchased in 2021 for $245,000.
Sun, who claimed to be unable to find a lawyer to take her case, could not be reached for comment.
In an attempt to dissuade similar operations, federal authorities have begun forfeiture proceedings on six properties, including the one in Machias, and plan to seize more.
The emergence of Maine as a major source of black market weed first gained public attention last year after the Daily Caller, a conservative website, published a leaked US Department of Homeland Security memo that claimed law enforcement officials had identified 270 illicit cultivation operations in Maine backed by Chinese organized crime groups — nearly triple the number of legal growing sites in the state. The memo claimed those illicit operations could generate more than $4 billion in illegal sales.
Those eye-popping numbers caught the attention of Maine’s congressional delegation, which demanded the Department of Justice do something about it.
In February, the delegation was joined by a bipartisan group of 50 members of Congress that called on the Department of Justice to share more information about illegal cultivation backed by Chinese organized crime, and to figure out if the Chinese government was complicit in it.
At a congressional hearing in June, Senator Susan Collins of Maine grilled FBI director Christopher Wray, saying the illicit cultivation sites are not just straining local law enforcement, but hurting the housing supply during a major shortage because black mold created by indoor growing conditions makes the houses inhabitable.
“This is a serious problem, and our county, state, and local law enforcement have been working with federal officials, but they are overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task,” Collins said.
Darcie N. McElwee, US attorney for Maine, said the individuals who have been arrested in Maine in the past year, or are listed as owners of the homes, are either US citizens or “lawful permanent residents living in states like New York and Massachusetts.”
Assistant US Attorney Andrew Lizotte said that based on property records, the spread of illegal growing operations in Maine began three or four years ago.
“These properties are far flung, really rural areas, and there’s not a big law enforcement presence,” he said. “But it’s also a cultural thing. People here really value privacy.”
Lizotte said utility providers are not allowed to proactively share high-usage information with law enforcement, so police have to use old-fashioned shoe leather, and their noses, to find illicit operations and build enough probable cause to get subpoenas. Once they have the electric bills, search warrants follow.
At one house in Corrina, Maine, purchased by a shell company for $140,000 in 2021, the monthly electric bill went from $69 to as much as $11,719 within a year, court records show.
Many of those arrested onsite or listed as property buyers have a primary address in Brooklyn, while some have ties to Massachusetts communities, including Quincy and Medford.
Sheriff Lancaster said while criminals sought to exploit Mainers’ live-and-let-live ethos by buying up neglected properties and thinking the locals wouldn’t bother them, that attitude has begun to change.
“We’re hearing from people in the community all the time,” he said. “Their eyes have been opened up to what’s going on, and they don’t like it.”
Kevin Cullen is a Globe reporter and columnist who roams New England. He can be reached at kevin.cullen@globe.com.
Illegal marijuana growing operations have been found in multiple states across the country in recent years. And officials believe Maine is the latest hot spot. Read More