Feds Bust Homegrown Weed Op, Probe Possible Foreign Involvement in 20 States

Federal authorities seized nearly 40 pounds of marijuana during a raid on a home in rural Maine as they investigate possible foreign involvement in interstate drug trafficking, the Associated Press reported. Xisen Guo, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was arrested on federal drug charges and accused of growing the plant without a license, which is required in Maine, officials said. Guo’s case is the latest example of what authorities suspect to be a widespread drug trafficking operation by foreign actors, who allegedly exploit state laws by growing weed in states where it’s legal and selling it in states where it isn’t. The DEA is investigating operations believed to be run by international criminal organizations in more than 20 states, Attorney General Merrick Garland told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee this week. Darcie McElwee, the U.S. attorney for Maine, said the possibility of foreign involvement evidenced “a need for a strong and sustained federal, state and local effort to shut down these operations” as law enforcement continues to probe who’s behind them.