Feds charge 51 with trafficking black-market marijuana

Federal authorities are accusing more than 50 people of scheming to sell black-market marijuana across state lines. They allegedly grew and processed the drug in Oklahoma, distributing it across nine states, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Oklahoma said Monday. Law enforcement agents lodged arrest warrants against 51 individuals last week—23 of whom remained at large as of Monday. The scheme was primarily led by Li Shun Chen, 53, and Ying Wang, 43, both U.S. citizens from Oklahoma City, Okla., federal authorities said. All suspects are presumed legally innocent until proven guilty in court.

More than half of the charged suspects were Chinese nationals, although some had permanent legal resident status in the United States, the attorney’s office noted. While carrying out the arrest warrants, federal agents identified and turned over to immigration authorities 13 other people who didn’t have U.S. citizenship.

What crimes are the individuals accused of committing? The individuals allegedly produced and sold large quantities of marijuana across state lines under the guise of a state-licensed operation, said Drug Enforcement Administration agent Joseph B. Tucker. Their operation ran from March 2025 through April 2026. After growing the drug on illegal marijuana farms, they then took it to stash houses controlled by brokers and distributed it to customers.

Last week, law enforcement agents seized more than a half ton of marijuana and 61,000 marijuana plants.

Have other marijuana operations been run in the state? On Monday, a judge denied bond for a man accused of running a billion-dollar illegal marijuana operation in Oklahoma. Hao Chen allegedly operated fraudulent medical marijuana licensing schemes for four years, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said. He was charged with 18 felony counts in January. 

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report on a study that found scarce evidence to support medicinal marijuana use for mental health.