OKLAHOMA CITY – After a recent string of highprofile busts, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Oklahoma Sheriffs Association announced in a joint press conference last week that they are requesting federal funds to help fight illegal marijuana growing operations.
Officials said they are seeking $4 million in direct funding to combat the problem.
“It seems increasingly the case that there are Chinese, Mexican, Russian criminal organizations, cartels, that are behind many of these activities,” said Luke Holland, chief of staff for Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla. “They’re bringing with them a list of terribles, criminal activities … (like) human trafficking, money laundering, weapons trafficking. These are really serious problems.”
Law enforcement officials have discovered several illegal growing operations in the past weeks. In Johnston County, the sheriff’s office said it seized about 20,000 illegal plants, valued between $30 million and $60 million, on July 1. That operation was linked to Chinese nationals and “Asian Mafia criminal organizations,” the office said.
On June 15, Lincoln County officials found 80 illegal grow houses southwest of Agra. The day before, the OBN said it shut down an illegal operation in Muskogee County that may have also involved human labor trafficking
Ḣolland said that, should it receive the money, the OBN would like to establish “a unit that is explicitly dedicated to fighting these criminal syndications here in Oklahoma.”
The OBN and sheriffs reiterated their support for legal operations in Oklahoma, but said the legal market has attracted “bad actors” who seek to blend in.
“What we will be concentrating on are drug trafficking organizations,” said OBN director Donnie Anderson. “There are transnational and national drug organizations that have infiltrated Oklahoma, they’re here in Oklahoma, and they’re not going away anytime soon.”
Holland said the funding, if granted, would come through the Justice Department via congressional appropriation.
Ryan Sproul, Inhofe’s field representative for northwest Oklahoma, added the following in an email after the event: “For several years, Oklahoma has encountered increased public safety challenges, including an increase in drug trafficking, money laundering, tax evasion, human trafficking and other crimes, directly or indirectly related to the burgeoning marijuana industry. These crimes put the safety of every Oklahoman in jeopardy. Criminal enterprises, including those involved in transnational criminal organizations, are known to have targeted Oklahoma for their operations due to its relatively low cost of living, cheap licensing fees, lack of a production cap on marijuana, and insufficient state resources to effectively regulate the new industry by the state.
“The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control (OBN) is responsible for registering any entity who manufactures or distributes a controlled dangerous substance. OBN is also responsible for enforcing the state’s criminal and administrative drug laws. OBN is the primary state law enforcement entity responsible with countering the illegal activities associated with the marijuana industry. A surge of additional resources is needed. As such, $4 million is needed to support the salaries, equipment, and investigative activities of twenty (20) narcotic enforcement agents, three (3) intelligence analysts, and one (1) attorney. This appropriation would provide the necessary resources to better identify, investigate, and dismantle criminal drug trafficking operations across the state.”