State Moves to Seize Cash From Local Pot Bust

According to a legal notice in this week’s Watonga Republican, the State of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control are seeking to seize $9,320 taken as evidence during a raid on a pot grow known as CycoFlower in the former HollyTex factory.

That raid took place on May 15, 2023. It was carried out in the early days of the state crackdown on black market pot produced inside otherwise licensed grows. While the grow house on Russworm Avenue was properly licensed, it contained thousands of undocumented plants and product outside the licensing parameters. Medical marijuana laws require each plant be inventoried from seed to processing and the processed product be accounted for properly as well. Undocumented marijuana is often bound for the lucrative black market, usually out of state.

The money is allegedly the proceeds of illegal controlled dangerous substance exchange.

The legal notice goes on to note that during the raid, which it calls a federal search warrant at an illegal marijuana grow facility, evidence was located indicating drug trafficking was being conducted at the residence of Xing Xing, Zhenzhong Wang and Yi Huang on Chisholm Trail in Watonga.

A search of that residence turned up a pound of pot, a drug ledger and the money. Federal laws allow the seizure and forfeiture of assets or property, including cash, that law enforcement believes was used to facilitate illegal drug trade. That can also include a vehicle used to transport drugs or a home or warehouse where individuals stored and/or sold controlled substances.

The residence, believed to have been a rental at the time, is not included in the seizure proceedings.

The OBN said interested parties have up to 45 days to claim the property. There has been no indication where those parties are, other than probably in federal custody, beyond local database search capabilities.