4 Chinese citizens, including 1 in the U.S. illegally, allegedly found with marijuana plants worth $22.5 million in Georgia
Georgia law enforcement officers thought they were raiding an illegal food manufacturing plant before discovering $22.5 million worth of marijuana plants last week, authorities said Tuesday.
Four Chinese citizens have been arrested in connection with an illegal marijuana cultivation operation in Pierce County. The suspects, identified as Zhu Sheng Bing, Jinpeng Ma, Chenhui Shu and Wei Sheng Deng, were taken into custody.
They each face a charge of possession of marijuana. Additional trafficking charges are expected, authorities said.
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“The agricultural sector is not immune to criminal activity,” Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper said at a news conference to announce the arrest. “I say it all the time, just like water takes the easiest path, so does criminal activity from time to time.”
Deng was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to his arrest report. The other three were in the United States legally, authorities said.
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They are all being held without bail.
The investigation into an alleged rural food manufacturing plant was launched four weeks ago, Harper said. People at the establishment allegedly told an undercover law enforcement agent that they were growing an “edible food item,” Pierce County Sheriff Ramsey Bennett said.
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The arrest occurred last week when authorities executed a search warrant before finding more than 11,000 marijuana plants inside the establishment.
The facility had been in operation since 2022, Bennett said.
“We know people within the organization that we know here in the county, they have connections to people from Staten Island (New York) all the way up to the Houston metro area,” the sheriff said.
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“He wasn’t your average fellow South Georgian with a few plants in the yard or a few plants in the closet,” he added. “It goes well beyond that.”
Original article source: 4 Chinese citizens, including 1 in the U.S. illegally, allegedly found with marijuana plants worth $22.5 million in Georgia
