Unbeknownst to many Americans, Chinese “Triad” gangsters have gained a notable foothold in the United States, with considerable involvement in the illegal marijuana trade raising broader security concerns for U.S. authorities.
The growing power of the Chinese Mafia, or the “Triad” as it’s more commonly called, was illustrated by an incident which occurred in November 2022 at a cannabis farm in Oklahoma—as unlikely a setting for any for an outburst of oriental gang violence.
This incident involved Chen Wu, who, armed and demanding repayment of a $300,000 debt, fatally shot He Qiang Chen and three others. Both men, originating from Fujian, a province notorious for organized crime, were part of a broader wave of Chinese gangsters exploiting America’s billion-dollar marijuana boom.
Chinese organized crime has largely dominated the nation’s illicit marijuana trade, leading to increased violence, trafficking, and various forms of fraud across states from California to Maine.
“Chinese organized crime has taken over marijuana in Oklahoma and the United States,” Donnie Anderson, an Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics official, told ProPublica. These criminal activities exploit thousands of Chinese immigrants, forcing them into abusive labor and prostitution, under the guise of working in marijuana cultivation.
The criminal networks, loosely organized yet highly disciplined, are reportedly overseen from New York by mafias with deep roots in southern China, known as “triads.” These groups have exploited lenient marijuana cultivation laws, such as those in Oklahoma, to establish a significant illegal marijuana trade across state lines. The surge in illicit cultivation has turned Oklahoma into a major supplier of black-market marijuana, with estimates valuing the illegal produce between $18 billion and $44 billion annually.
Despite the vast scale of these operations, the federal response has been limited, with a shift in enforcement priorities and a lack of resources dedicated to combating Chinese organized crime. This has allowed these criminal networks to not only dominate the illegal marijuana market but also to bolster their global money laundering operations for other criminal enterprises, including those dealing in narcotics like fentanyl.
The expansion of Chinese organized crime into the cannabis market underscores not only the challenges facing U.S. law enforcement but also the potential national security threats posed by these groups’ alleged ties to the Chinese government. This relationship is believed to provide the mafias with protection in exchange for services that include moving money overseas for the Communist Party elite and conducting espionage within immigrant communities.
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Author: Nicholas Dolinger
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