Donnie Anderson, director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control, talks about a large-scale marijuana-trafficking bust during a press conference at the bureau’s headquarters in Oklahoma City on Tuesday.
Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority Director Adria Berry said during Tuesday’s press conference that she hopes the day’s roundup of suspects in illegal marijuana farming operations will serve as a warning to licensees across the state.
Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority Director Adria Berry speaks at a press conference announcing the results of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics’ large-scale bust of marijuana-trafficking organizations on Tuesday.
A map showing the locations of the nine marijuana farms raided by the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control is on display at the bureau’s headquarters in Oklahoma City during Tuesday’s press conference.
KYY Farms in Burneyville, in Love County, is one of nine marijuana farms raided on Tuesday.
A multiagency investigation into illegal marijuana grow operations in Oklahoma resulted in the takedown of “a very large broker in the U.S.” and seizing tons of illicit cannabis.
An estimated 100,000 marijuana plants and 2,000 pounds of bulk-processed marijuana were seized from nine Oklahoma farms after a yearlong investigation of illegal grow operations, authorities said Tuesday.
“We plan to file charges on these criminal brokers, business owners, land owners and entities that helped facilitate the fraudulent documentation allowing these criminal organizations to get an Oklahoma medical marijuana license,” Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control spokesman Mark Woodward said in a news release.
In a news conference Tuesday, bureau Director Donnie Anderson said of 13 arrest warrants issued in Oklahoma — as well as one in California and three in Texas — several suspects have been taken into custody.
“One of the females that was arrested was one of our large targets. … She’s also a very large broker in the U.S. for moving marijuana across the U.S. and out of the country,” Anderson said.
Xiumeng Lyu, identified among the main targets, is in custody in the Carter County jail, according to Woodward.
He previously has said the bureau is “aggressively investigating” what he described as “fraudulent business structures” used to bring out-of-state interests to Oklahoma and circumvent the state’s two-year residency requirement for majority ownership in medical marijuana businesses.
“This is done by paying ‘ghost’ owners to put their name on licenses to claim ownership when they actually have no knowledge or true legal involvement in the grow operation,” Woodward said.
Gov. Kevin Stitt called Tuesday “a great day for law and order in Oklahoma,” citing the state’s priority to “crack down” on illicit marijuana operations across the state.
According to the news release, investigators found brokers moving millions of dollars worth of marijuana from multiple Oklahoma farms into black markets in states including California, North Carolina, Missouri, Indiana and Texas.
Search warrants were served about 8 a.m. Tuesday at nine farms and three residential locations connected to illegal shipments identified by Oklahoma authorities, according to Woodward. The farms are located in or near several southern Oklahoma locations — Wilson, Ratliff City, Chickasha, Madill, Burneyville — as well as in Chandler and Amber, a news release states. The other three warrants were served at residences in Edmond, Mustang and Norman, according to the bureau.
Multiple local, state, tribal and federal agencies assisted in the investigation and Tuesday’s operation, according to the bureau. Anderson said around noon that agents were still collecting evidence but that it appeared that the street value of the busts would exceed $500 million.
Anderson showed footage from one of the law enforcement operations Tuesday morning, coordinated to happen around the same time. The video from Wilson, in Carter County, showed agents taking down “a pretty good-size trafficking operation,” with 500 structures on 80 acres, Anderson said.
Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority Director Adria Berry said she hopes Tuesday’s operations serve as a warning to licensees across the state.
“If you are engaging in criminal operations, your actions will not go unnoticed,” she said, noting the upcoming implementation of a seed-to-sale tracking system to help investigators’ efforts.
Stitt, in commending lawmakers in attendance at the news conference, promised “more legislation coming to protect Oklahomans.”
Tulsa World’s 5 most memorable cannabis stories of 2021
Lawsuit filed over state’s medical marijuana ‘seed-to-sale’ tracking system
Tulsa-based attorney Ron Durbin filed suit April 15, 2021, on behalf of Beau Zoellner, who operates a medical marijuana processing site in Okmulgee County for the Dr. Z Leaf business chain.
The lawsuit effectively paused use of the state’s “seed-to-sale” tracking system, with allegations that the state’s chosen vendor charges unreasonable fees that could lead to increased prices for patients.
The as-yet-unresolved lawsuit alleges the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority allowed a monopoly when it selected Florida-based Metrc as its seed-to-sale tracking provider. Seed-to-sale tracking is a term that generally refers to the practice of electronically documenting progress from the day a cannabis seed is planted to when whatever it yields is sold.
Foreign investors, crime among concerns as cannabis booms in rural Oklahoma
Stories abound of strangers showing up with bundles of cash and paying far above market rates for farmland that’s quickly converted to marijuana production enclosed in fenced compounds.
For the most part, the grows seem to be duly licensed by the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority. But law enforcement officials and some lawmakers contend that a good deal of the product is being illegally shipped out of state for old-fashioned street sales.
And the situation, say rural lawmakers, is creating a lot of tension in their districts. By one estimate, said state Rep. Josh West, R-Grove, 60% or more of the state’s marijuana production is sold illegally.
Legal cannabis industry funds more enforcement efforts as criminals ‘make us look bad’
With a more open cannabis industry in Oklahoma spurring organized crime concerns, state agencies say they need to team up and expand compliance and enforcement efforts with funding provided from the fees paid by medical marijuana businesses operating legally.
An Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority-licensed Garvin County grower told the Tulsa World: “We need to make sure bad actors are not here. For those of us who live and breathe these rules every day, it makes us look bad.”
Officials with OMMA and the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics are hopeful a new memorandum of understanding between the two organizations, despite their differing roles, will improve efforts to efficiently block illicit activity — whether from within the state’s medical program or otherwise.
Attention on ‘ghost owner’ investigations as criminal cannabis case has tie to Tulsa law firm
The criminal case against an employee of a Tulsa law firm with hundreds of cannabis-related clients has drawn attention to investigations of “ghost owners.”
Kathleen Windler, charged in Garvin County District Court, is accused along with her employer of knowingly fostering illegal medical marijuana operations. She identified herself as a legal secretary for Jones Brown, a law firm with an office in Tulsa.
“Fraudulent business structures” have reportedly been used to bring out-of-state interests to Oklahoma and circumvent the state’s two-year residency requirement for majority ownership in medical marijuana businesses.
Petition to allow cannabis for recreational adult use filed in Oklahoma
A cannabis advocacy group in October filed two ballot initiatives seeking to amend the Oklahoma Constitution to legalize cannabis use for anyone at least 21 years old and replace the state medical marijuana industry’s current oversight agency.
Nearly 178,000 valid signatures would be required on each of the petitions for it to be placed on a ballot in 2022.
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