A group of seven Chinese nationals face criminal charges after prosecutors say they participated in a scheme to grow and distribute marijuana across the Northeast using interconnected “grow houses” staffed by other immigrants smuggled into the country.
Six of the seven defendants are in custody, but one, Yanrong Zhu, of Greenfield and Brooklyn, N.Y., remains a fugitive, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley’s office announced Tuesday.
Prosecutors say the criminal enterprise began around January 2020, operating out of “grow houses” in Braintree, Melrose and Greenfield, along with other locations in Massachusetts, Maine and elsewhere. The seven defendants are accused of using those houses, which they owned, operated or partnered with, to grow and distribute kilograms of marijuana in bulk.
The operators of the grow houses kept in contact with one another through a list of marijuana cultivators and distributors who were either from or had ties to China in the region, which was called the “East Coast Contact List.”
Prosecutors say Jianxiong Chen, 39, of Braintree, controlled several grow houses in Maine as well as a home in Braintree that served as the enterprise’s home base. Marijuana manufactured by the network of grow houses and bulk cash from dealers was delivered to Chen’s Braintree home, where it was redistributed, according to Foley’s office.
Co-conspirators hid the marijuana and cash they were bringing to Chen inside the engines of their vehicles.
During a search of the home in October, officials recovered more than $270,000 in cash found both inside the home and in a Porsche parked in the driveway. Investigators also found several Chinese passports and other documents hidden in a safe, Foley’s office said in a statement.
Prosecutors say data taken from Chen’s phone shows he helped smuggle Chinese nationals into the U.S., putting them to work at one of the grow houses he oversaw and keeping their passports until they repaid the cost of smuggling them into the country.
Profits from the marijuana sales, which totaled several million dollars, were used to buy luxury homes, cars, jewelry and “other items in Massachusetts, including to expand the enterprise through the purchase of real estate.”
During searches of grow houses in Braintree and Melrose, officials seized more than 109 kilograms of marijuana, close to $200,000 in cash and several luxury items, like a Rolex watch, which still had a $65,000 price tag attached.
The enterprise also “conducted bulk cash transactions” with operators in the Eastern District of New York, prosecutors said. Zhu, the one defendant still on the run, and Hongbin Wu, of Quincy, were stopped by law enforcement leaving a grow house in Greenfield, and officials seized nearly $37,000 from them, according to the statement.
All seven defendants are charged with one count of conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuana. But many also face additional charges, including money laundering conspiracy and money laundering.
Those arrested are: Chen, Yuxiong Wu, 36, of Weymouth; Dinghui Li, 38, of Braintree; Dechao Ma, 35, of Braintree; Peng Lian Zhu, 35, of Melrose; and Hongbin Wu, 35.
“This case pulls back the curtain on a sprawling criminal enterprise that exploited our immigration system and our communities for personal gain,” said Foley in the statement. “These defendants allegedly turned quiet homes across the Northeast into hubs for a criminal enterprise – building a multi-million-dollar black-market operation off the backs of an illegal workforce and using our neighborhoods as cover.”
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