A grand jury indicted the defendants last week on 67 counts, including maintaining a drug-involved premises, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, distribution of marijuana and unlawful use of a communication facility.
“This case underscores the threat posed by nationwide criminal organizations that exploit Oklahoma’s marijuana laws to produce and distribute large quantities of black-market marijuana across the country,” U.S. Attorney Robert J. Troester said in a statement.
According to the indictment, the trafficking operation began in March 2025. Ten licensed growers produced illegal cannabis in “massive quantities” at multiple farms spanning the state, including facilities in Stillwater, Hennessey and Paden.
At least one of the grows had been shut down before, after state investigators found “vacuum bags of untraceable marijuana” in 2023.
Although cannabis may be grown legally in Oklahoma with a license, state law prohibits it from being transported across state lines or sold outside of licensed dispensaries. And growers must adhere to tagging and tracking rules for each of their plants.
Four people are accused of transporting the weed in question to two “stash houses” in Edmond, just north of Quail Springs Mall, where it was picked up in bulk by at least two dozen illegal distributors. Some was sold in Oklahoma; some made its way to customers in Texas, Mississippi, Kansas and North Carolina.
Thirteen more people face charges for brokering the transactions and laundering the profits.
About half of the accused people had been arrested by Monday morning, and the rest are still at large. Twenty-seven of the defendants live in Oklahoma. Twenty-nine are Chinese citizens, although eleven have permanent legal resident status in the United States.
A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Oklahoma identifies Li Shun Chen and Ying Wang as two of the lead conspirators. Both are Oklahoma City residents and U.S. citizens, and both have been arrested.
In searches executed alongside the arrests, law enforcement seized more than 61,000 cannabis plants and more than half a ton of processed weed, according to the press release.
These arrest and search warrants came from a federal Homeland Security task force, which involved federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
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