Maine authorities raided three more illegal marijuana operations on Tuesday. Police have reportedly busted a total of seven in the last month in central Maine.
According to the Kennebec Journal, two of the locations were in Whitefield and the other in Chelsea.
Several arrests were made but officials say one suspect did flee the area.
This is the latest in a series of raids after Maine’s congressional delegation recently made calls for the Justice Department to “crack down” on illegal Chinese-run marijuana operations, which they say are worth close to $4.5 billion and includes 270 suspected properties.
“We write to follow-up to our August 23, 2023, letter regarding reports of a memo that was produced and circulated by Border Patrol officials over alleged illegal Chinese marijuana growing operations in the state of Maine. Since that time, there have been multiple raids across the state; since the beginning of this year, police have arrested eight people and seized more than 4,400 cannabis plants at four growing sites in Belgrade, China, and Cornville, Maine,” the delegation said.
In total, authorities have raided seven of these operations in the last month based on information from the U.S. Attorney General’s Office.
They’ve made eight arrests and seized over 6,000 plants total, which equals roughly 107 pounds of processed marijuana.