OKLAHOMA CITY – It was a few years ago on Easter morning when Chandler, Oklahoma, resident Jim Shaw was driving with his family heading to the Sunday holiday church service. As they drove down the road in rural Lincoln County, Shaw said he noticed a car parked with two people inside.
Shaw said he was suspicious of the car, noticing two people in the vehicle. The fact is that on Shaw’s road, it is a dead-end. Rarely are people simply parked there for no reason, particularly on a Sunday morning.
As he drove past, Shaw could see a man behind the wheel. And in the backseat was a woman. He thought they might be Chinese, as an illegal grow operation involving illegal Chinese nationals had been operational a quarter-mile away not too long before.
“It was a late 90’s model or early 2000’s regular sedan,” he said, suggesting they were out of place in that remote location where folks know one another.
“We live on a dead-end road. We have one neighbor down there with us. And so when people come all the way down to us, at the dead end, you’re there for a purpose,” Shaw told NTD recently in his legislative office in the State Capitol in Oklahoma City. “You are either delivering mail, a package, or you have been intentionally invited to come out to our place.”
Shaw, a Republican who was elected to represent House District 32 last November, was driving in his vehicle with his wife and two daughters. And since it was also the Easter holiday and he was going to meet his parents at church, he decided to drive on. But he kept the brief encounter in the back of his mind.
Shaw said he and his family went to church for the Easter service and after lunch drove back to their home, west of Chandler. To Shaw’s surprise, the suspicious car was still there.
And while Shaw did not stop and confront the driver of the car because his wife and daughters were in the vehicle, his father, then a reserve deputy for the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office, west of Oklahoma City, was following in his own vehicle right behind his son and his family.
“[My father] stopped, rolled the window down, and was like ‘How are you doing?’ The male didn’t speak at all. But the female rolled the window down and said, ‘Can I help you?’” recollected Shaw.
But Shaw’s father, knowing when folks may not have good intentions, particularly when they are hanging out where they should not be, was direct with the mysterious duo in the sedan.
“He said, ‘You need to go. There’s absolutely no reason for you to be here,” Shaw said. “And they ended up moving on.”
This encounter, Shaw said, took place not far from where a “huge marijuana grow” was located about a quarter of a mile away. Law enforcement from multiple counties had raided the Lincoln County grow, and yet some of the Chinese individuals appeared to still be in the area, as evidenced by the assumed Chinese couple who were lurking on Shaw’s road.“Even six to eight months after the raid,” Shaw said, “there were still some [people] hanging around the property,” he said.
While the illegal grow operation was a nuisance, Shaw recalled that after the raid and the shutdown, vicious guard dogs from the grow were still on the loose. A neighbor of Shaw’s who enjoyed walking up and down the road for exercise was attacked by “seven or eight of these dogs” and “they attacked him within an inch of his life.”
Medical Marijuana Comes to the Sooner States
It was seven years ago that Oklahoma voters supported medical marijuana being made available to people in need of the plant’s medicinal properties. It became big business for the state, with dispensaries popping up on street corners from Lawton to Bartlesville and Guymon to Antlers.
But as Shaw and other supporters of law and order have rapidly discovered, the state’s law allowed for a wild west-type of environment with Chinese gangs moving into the state to take advantage of the loose laws. This has led to problems for smaller communities and counties and their law enforcement.
The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics has encountered Chinese nationals in all parts of the state. They are operating illegal grow operations that are shipping the pot out of state and even out of the United States.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has been vocal about the problems that have arisen since medical marijuana has overwhelmed the state, telling Fox 25 in 2023 that “there’s enough marijuana, I’ve been told, grown in Oklahoma, to supply the entire United States … that’s not what this was supposed to be. This was supposed to be about medical use in the state of Oklahoma and it’s gotten way out of control.”
But Shaw said Stitt could do more.
“On the China-owned land ownership topic, when I campaigned heavily on this, against my predecessor because of his stance on it, Stitt came to our district, door-knocked, did multiple social-media posts saying I was lying about the current laws that are in place today,” Shaw said.
“[Stitt said] that it is absolutely illegal for Chinese nationals to own farmland. But it’s not criminalized. And [there’s] a lack of enforceability. The main thing you have to do when you buy a property is when you are closing on the title you have to sign an affidavit that you are a citizen of the United States. What level of scrutiny is applied to that? I don’t know, but it’s not sufficient. To find if they are a US resident, you have to proactively seek that out.”
Added Shaw: “There’s no enforceability with it.
“[Stitt] says he is against it. That it’s illegal. But the fact remains it is still happening. They own a lot of land [in Oklahoma].”
Asked if more rural legislators would get behind his efforts to put more teeth in the law, he said he suspects many of them would.
“It is absolutely in my top six policy items I will continue to push on.”
Shaw said he gets support from his friend Lincoln County Sheriff Kevin Garrett.
“[Garrett] and I talk quite frequently and we both recognize that [illegal marijuana grows] are a big issue, for sure,” he said.
When Shaw ran for the House seat, the incumbent, Republican Kevin Wallace, was not as interested in the issue of illegal marijuana farms and Chinese-owned farmland in his district. This reporter reached out to Wallace last fall to get his take on the topic, only to be rebuffed.
It is believed that Shaw’s serious approach to the problem plaguing not only District 32 and Lincoln County, but all corners of the state, helped Shaw defeat his opponent.
Beyond Oklahoma
The problem of Chinese nationals operating illegal marijuana grow operations that are often tied to human trafficking, exploitation, and environmental problems is not only plaguing Oklahoma. Maine is another state where the problem is widespread.
A recent documentary promoted by conservative commentator Tucker Carlson called “High Crimes” exposes the shocking prevalence of illegal Chinese marijuana grows throughout the Pine Tree State and how the grows take over everything from old canneries to empty houses, adding to social problems in that state, according to Steve Robinson, the Maine Wire reporter who investigated the issue in his home state.
In fact, Shaw’s alma mater–Oklahoma State University (OSU) in Stillwater–is noted in High Crimes via the OSU-branded blankets that are often used to cover windows where illegal Chinese grow operations are taking place. Robinson notes in the documentary that the Oklahoma connection to Maine’s criminal pot operations is not surprising in light of the problems that have erupted in Oklahoma in recent years.
AG Takes Note
NTD reached out to the office of Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who is also running for Oklahoma governor in 2026. Drummond responded, saying: “Illegal marijuana grows have been responsible for an alarming influx of organized crime into Oklahoma, particularly from Chinese crime syndicates and Mexican drug cartels.
“As attorney general, I have made it a priority to investigate all crimes related to illegal marijuana grow operations. The ramifications of these grows go far beyond black-market marijuana to include sex trafficking, money laundering, fentanyl distribution and more.
“In 2023, I assembled an Organized Crime Task Force to work closely with our law enforcement partners to drive these illicit operators out of Oklahoma. In 2023, Oklahoma had more than 9,000 licensed marijuana grows. Today there are fewer than 2,100 due to the overwhelming success of the task force.”
Land Grab
Asked why Lincoln County–which borders Oklahoma County and Oklahoma City to the east–is a draw for these illicit operations, Shaw speculates that in addition to the loose laws, it is “the tract sizes.”
“The tract sizes are desirable. And with a lot of rural counties and towns in Oklahoma, property values are very attractive,” he said. “I know it’s been a problem for a long time. I don’t know if geographically there’s pockets of smaller tracts of land … maybe just the right amount of acreage. Most [grow operations] are on five to 10 to 20 acres. This is desirable to these guys. This is a buffer. A little room.”
On Lincoln County’s far-east side, south of Stroud and on the boundary with Okfuskee County, a grow operation called Harvest Hill Ranch LLC, which is listed online as an official “cannabis business” with a “grower license.” It has operated near the intersection of State Highway 99 and 970 Road–also known as Sparks Road–for several years. NTD learned that the owners of the property just west of Harvest Hill–who have children and livestock–are planning to move away. The skunk-like smell of marijuana can be detected when the wind is right, this reporter noted.
Driving by Harvest Hill on a recent weekday afternoon, this reporter noted that the Harvest Hill property was surrounded by a stockade fence lined with barbed wire and signs reading: “Security Cameras in Use,” “Beware of Dog,” “Restricted Area–Do Not Enter,” and “Warning Registered Gun Owner.”
There was a man at the gate when NTD stopped by, but he did not talk to this reporter. Accessing property deed information online, it notes that the 5.27 acres of Harvest Hill Ranch LLC is under the name of Yunmei Dong, who purchased it in December 2020 for $158,000. Property records also show that a Yunmei Dong purchased a home in Edmond, Oklahoma, a few months later.
As with anything that is rife with secrecy–places like Harvest Hill, or the grow farms northwest of Oklahoma City that featured a deadly shootout amongst Chinese nationals a couple of years ago–rumors spread.
A liquor store owner in southern Lincoln County said Chinese men come in to buy liquor and are very demanding and rude. She said she even kicked one of the men out for his obnoxious behavior in her store.
Meanwhile, Shaw said the problems are not just social or cultural for rural folks shocked at the influx of foreign-owned marijuana farm operations. These grows need a lot of water to keep the cannabis plants alive and flourishing. He said a grow operation near Jacktown, off of Highway 177, had applied for a water-supply permit to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.
Other property owners adjacent to this operation were concerned that it would negatively impact their own water supplies. So they reached out to Shaw who ultimately spoke to the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics. They sent out an investigator, and within a week or two the operation was completely shut down.
“They didn’t give a reason why,” Shaw said. “They had enough to say they were operating illegally.”
When Shaw was asked if state officials and investigators determine if the Chinese are here legally or not, that is an aspect that often falls through the cracks.
“Because our laws are so inefficient here in Oklahoma,” Shaw said. “There’s a huge lack of enforceability on hostile foreign nationals owning land. And even if you prove they are maybe not full, legal residents of the United States, what can you do here in Oklahoma?The laws don’t give you a whole lot of authority.”
Shaw wants that to change. This past legislative session, he drew up legislation to be heard in the Civil Judiciary Committee, but it was not heard.
Another bill heard last session was by Oklahoma Panhandle Republican Rep. Kenton Patzkowsky. His bill addressed not having Chinese nationals operate marijuana grow farms within a certain distance from a military installation.
“In itself it’s not a bad thing,” Shaw said. “But it doesn’t address the problem. It doesn’t criminalize it. And so if you look at that bill, out of the entire chamber, I was the only person who voted ‘no’ on that bill. [Patzkowsky’s] bill wasn’t doing any harm, it just wasn’t addressing the root problem.”
Foreigners looking to gain more of a foothold in Oklahoma are brazenly approaching Lincoln County residents–and folks in other Oklahoma counties–with cash offers for their properties, even though they are not on the market.
“It’s Chinese coming literally with briefcases full of cash,” Shaw said. “Most of the people I know were like ‘absolutely not!’ Not for sale.”
Shaw said when he talks to representatives of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, who inspect grow operations, they “lack the resources to attack this issue.”
“There is significant need for improvement for how the [medical marijuana] licensing works and how they do their inspections and everything else,” Shaw said, adding, “It’s a very serious problem.”
Rooting Out the Problem
Asked if more rural legislators would get behind his efforts to put more teeth in the law, he said he suspects many of them would.
“It is absolutely in my top six policy items I will continue to push on,” he said, noting that those who violate our laws and social contracts need to be punished. That goes for those foreign nationals from hostile nations who take advantage of the state’s benevolence.
“It needs to be criminal for them to own it,” Shaw said. “[And] if the foreign owner does not sell the property within 12 months, fine them and or put them in jail.”
“That needs to be the level we need to be at and stop tapdancing around the problem.”
