Two more people have been charged in a federal court in Maine for their roles in an alleged illegal marijuana grow in rural Maine.
Guo Hong Lei and Xiandu Zhang are now the second and third people charged with crimes in connection to illegal marijuana grow houses in Maine and mark the latest efforts by the federal government to crack down on the grow houses. A leaked federal memo from last August said there were up to 270 large-scale illegal grows in Maine connected to Chinese organized crime.
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That claim has been substantiated further by FBI Director Christopher Wray who previously said that homes, typically in rural Maine, are being turned into growing and processing facilities tied to Chinese organized crime.
The pair lived at and operated a grow house at 56 Pine St. in Mexico for at least two years, according to a court affidavit by Jonathan Richards, an officer on a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration task force. The house is located across from a day care and about 950 feet from a middle school, according to Richards.
The house was searched by federal authorities June 14, and a total of 498 marijuana plants were found along with multiple spaces outfitted for growing more. The house was purchased by Kun Yu Chen of Quincy, Massachusetts, in 2021 and is still in his name, according to Oxford County property records.
During the investigation, federal law enforcement officials were able to track a van owned by Lei as it traveled back and forth almost a dozen times between the house and the New York City area, which is a “large demand hub for illegal marijuana,” Richards said in his affidavit.
What’s more, electricity use data obtained by federal authorities from Central Maine Power Co. showed a spike in electricity use dating back to July 2022 and continuing into 2024, which was more evidence of a large-scale marijuana grow operation, according to Richards’ affidavit.
Zhang told federal law enforcement officers who interviewed him that he’s lived at the Pine Street house for the last two years and that he paid Lei, the other man, monthly to work on the marijuana. Typically, the house produced 20 to 30 pounds of marijuana every month, Zhang told investigators.
Since the beginning of 2024, police have been raiding and searching properties linked to these large marijuana grow operations all over rural Maine.
The busts have been in Brownville, Guilford, Milo and Sangerville in Piscataquis County; Corinna, Eddington, Holden and Passadumkeag in Penobscot County; Turner in Androscoggin County; Canaan, Cornville, Harmony, Madison, Mercer, Norridgewock, Ripley, Skowhegan and St. Albans in Somerset County; Jay in Franklin County; Belgrade, China and Chelsea in Kennebec County; Jefferson and Whitefield in Lincoln County; and Belmont and Freedom in Waldo County.
These operations received greater scrutiny after the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office found an illegal marijuana grow house in Carmel where police seized 3,400 plants and 111 pounds of processed marijuana in late June 2023. As the year continued, police uncovered other large illegal marijuana operations in Dexter, Wilton, Machias and other communities.
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In April, federal law enforcement officers made their first arrest and brought their first federal charges related to the grows against Xisen Guo for his role in converting a home in Passadumkeag into a large-scale illegal marijuana grow facility.
Zhang is scheduled to next appear in U.S. District Court in Portland on June 26 for a detention hearing. A similar hearing has not yet been scheduled for Lei.
Attorneys for the two men both declined to comment on the cases.