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Two people are dead and several others were hospitalized from carbon monoxide poisoning at a home in Freedom that was previously identified as an illegal marijuana grow operation.
[RELATED: Maine Law Enforcement Raids Waldo County House Linked to Chinese Drug Trafficking Network…]
Authorities were called to the home on Belfast Road at around 6 a.m. on Tuesday after a report of a propane leak, but responders discovered that the actual source was carbon monoxide, stemming from a severed heat exhaust pipe, the Freedom Fire Chief told WABI.
The exact cause of the incident is being investigated alongside the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office and the Maine State Police, the Fire Chief said.
The property where the carbon monoxide poisoning occurred, 555 Belfast Rd. in Freedom, was raided in May in a joint operation between the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office and the Maine State Police Tactical Team.
The search of the property came as a result of a collaborative investigation with the Department of Homeland Security, Drug Enforcement Agency, the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy and the municipality of Freedom.
The investigation identified the property as the site of an illegal marijuana grow operation.
During their May 13 search of the Belfast Road home, authorities seized more than 1,900 live cannabis plants.
The property is believed to be connected to a sprawling network of Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations (Asian TCOs) that are growing and trafficking black market cannabis in Maine.
[RELATED: Triad Weed: How Chinese Marijuana Grows Took Over Rural Maine…]
The 555 Belfast Road property raided Monday was purchased in Dec. 2021 by Austin Zhen, 33, of Brooklyn, New York. Zhen used a mortgage from Quontic Bank, a New York-based Community Development Finance Institution (CDFI).
State records show that the site was fitted with commercial-grade electricity under the license of J. Martin Vachon, an electrician who has been connected to other cannabis-growing operations in Maine.
The raids are among the more than forty large-scale marijuana cultivation and trafficking operations that have been disrupted since the Maine Wire began the “Triad Weed” investigative series.
“}]] Two people are dead and several others were hospitalized from carbon monoxide poisoning at a home in Freedom that was previously identified as an illegal marijuana grow operation. [RELATED: Maine Law Enforcement Raids Waldo County House Linked to Chinese Drug Trafficking Network…] Authorities were called to the home on Belfast Road at around 6 a.m. Read More