Two staff of a licensed medical marijuana develop in Oklahoma are going through federal prices for allegedly smuggling in forty kilos of pesticides from China, authorities stated.
A grand jury final week indicted Jin Zhao Chi, 44, and Dian Lin Jiang, 65, on misdemeanor prices for allegedly utilizing “unregistered and misbranded pesticides from Hong Kong” at a “state-registered” hashish cultivation web site in Seminole County, in accordance with the U.S. Lawyer from the Japanese District of Oklahoma.
The fees in opposition to the boys come amid heightened scrutiny of Oklahoma’s medical marijuana trade and years of allegations from public officers, together with Gov. Kevin Stitt, that the state’s trade is “affected by international legal pursuits.”
Oklahoma pesticide prices come amid heightened Chinese language hashish fears
Stitt and others have particularly known as out Chinese language nationals and the Chinese language “Communist Occasion” for allegedly corrupting Oklahoma’s authorized medical hashish market. In accordance with testimony offered to Congress, alleged organized-crime figures targeted on Oklahoma for a similar causes it turned engaging to the nationwide hashish trade: comparatively low cost land and labor, coupled with no license or cultivation limits.
“We won’t tolerate anybody making the most of polluting our lands and poisoning our residents with harmful, unlawful Chinese language pesticides smuggled into the American Heartland,” Jeffrey Corridor, assistant administrator on the Environmental Safety Company Workplace of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, stated in an announcement.
“These unlawful pesticides are sometimes utilized in subtle legal enterprises like illicit marijuana grows.”
It’s unclear whether or not the Seminole County develop nonetheless has a state allow. The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from MJBizDaily.
In accordance with authorities, Chi imported the “unlawful international pesticides” on Feb. 25, 2025, till “on or about” March 19, 2025. In accordance with a not too long ago unsealed indictment, he obtained about 40 kilos of “unregistered and misbranded pesticides” that had been presupposed to be “plastic mobile phone instances, polyvinyl chloride information traces, and stainless-steel latch fitments.”
Jiang allegedly participated within the sale and distribution of the pesticides beginning April 27, 2022, till Might 8, 2023, in accordance with the U.S. legal professional.
Each males are apparently nonetheless in custody, in accordance with a courtroom docket. Data related to the enforcement are nonetheless sealed.
In accordance with federal authorities, the misdemeanor pesticide prices stemmed from a joint investigation by the U.S. EPA, U.S. Customs and Border Safety, the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety and Homeland Safety Investigations.
Are state and federal authorities cracking down on Oklahoma medical marijuana?
Authorized cultivators in Oklahoma have claimed that state authorities are wielding a a lot heavier hand amid an ongoing moratorium on new permits within the state.
Cultivators have claimed that state authorities, inspired by Stitt, are utilizing bureaucratic techniques, comparable to denying annual renewals over paperwork snafus, to discourage authentic operators.
Annual hashish gross sales in Oklahoma exceeded $600 million in 2025, a big drop from the market’s heyday – and one which displays state officers’ efforts to curtail the trade.
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In federal lawsuits filed in opposition to Stitt, OMMA and different authorities final fall, hashish operators alleged that Oklahoma’s authorities is “engaged in a scheme and sample and follow to destroy legally working companies.”
A federal decide in April restored the allow of certainly one of dozens of cultivators shut down by the state, which alleged violations of track-and-trace necessities.
