The Patriot Post® · Chinese Crime Syndicates in America
By Laurence F. Sanford
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is waging smokeless, unrestricted warfare against the United States. A key component of this non-kinetic warfare is Chinese crime syndicates corrupting American civilization from within by poisoning its people with drugs, social chaos, and political bribery.
The CCP, through its United Works Front Department (UWFD), works with Chinese organized crime syndicates in establishing marijuana farms in Maine and other states. The UFWD recruits overseas Chinese and “useful idiots” in gathering intelligence and influencing public opinion about China. Overseas Chinese are particularly vulnerable to CCP blandishments because of family ties that are pulled, often in a threatening or blackmail fashion.
Maine is significant in that approximately 300 of the 600 Chinese-owned marijuana farms in America are in the Pine Tree State. Many of the farms are in large homes converted into indoor marijuana nurseries. Two signs of home conversion are electrical system upgrades and the blocking of windows to prevent sunlight from upsetting the cannabis growing cycle. The homes become contaminated with pesticides used in growing marijuana and mold due to the high temperatures required for marijuana growth. When the house is up for sale, there is generally no mention made of the mold and pesticides embedded in the structure.
Many of the homes were purchased under the names of single Chinese men and women from New York City with cash or with U.S. taxpayer dollars through Quontic Bank, a New York-based community development financial institution (CDFI) funded by the U.S. Treasury. The bank promoted the loans in metro New York City in Mandarin through Chinese-owned WeChat social media. The loans require occupation of the home by the person borrowing but were not enforced.
With a population of roughly 1.4 million, Maine’s elections, law enforcement agencies, and elected officials are easily influenced by relatively small sums of money. Democrat Governor Janet Mills and the Democrat-controlled legislature legalized the recreational use and growing of marijuana. The legalization opened up legal cover for crime syndicates to not only sell marijuana but grow it. Once the license was received, restrictions on output were ignored. Legal marijuana growers refer to the Chinese-owned farm marijuana as “Triad weed.”
Maine produces far more marijuana than it consumes. The surplus is exported to Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and other states through crime syndicate distribution channels.
Political corruption is pervasive in Maine. Vonalee Sides, a 70-year-old town agent for Staceyville, Maine, population 350, was paid $100,000 by Mervyn Yan to act as a front for a massive marijuana farm to be built in an abandoned mill in rural Maine. Maine law requires that to receive a marijuana growing license, the owner of the business must be a Maine resident. Yan also applied for a Massachusetts license to cultivate cannabis.
Yan, a private equity manager based in New York City, while making forays into the Maine cannabis marketplaces, admitted funneling millions of dollars to three members of the Biden family on behalf of CEFC, a Chinese state-run energy company and CCP intelligence front company. CEFC exists to buy worldwide influence with its “elite capture” programs and is a significant factor in China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
The Hudson West III LLC company was a joint venture between Hunter Biden and Yan to pursue business opportunities. None ever materialized. Hudson West III received a $5 million non-recourse loan from CEFC that was not repaid due to a hurried dissolution of the company in 2018.
Summary
What is happening in Maine is just the tip of unrestricted warfare being waged by the CCP against America. All states are being poisoned in one form or another. TikTok is poisoning American culture with anti-U.S. and pro-CCP propaganda.
Steve Robinson of The Maine Wire has written and spoken extensively on Maine’s experiences with Chinese cannabis farms and ensuing political corruption. See my podcast with Steve.
Chinese crime syndicates are reaping billions of dollars through the illicit fentanyl and marijuana drug trade. The money is used to buy politicians, business people, homes, farm land, and social media. Organizations with ties to the CCP fund many so-called spontaneous protests against Israel and ICE.
Action
- Follow the money!
- Identify and prosecute!
- Recognize that the CCP is waging unrestricted warfare against America and Western civilization.
- Ban Chinese ownership of land in America and ban TikTok.
- Maintain high tariffs against Chinese imports.
- Develop alliances with countries facing CCP malfeasance.
Laurence F. Sanford is a senior analyst at the American Security Council Foundation.