Susan Collins presses Trump officials on illegal marijuana grow houses

By Christopher Burns, Bangor Daily News Staff

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins pressed two top Trump administration officials on their response to the proliferation of illegal marijuana grow houses in Maine.

Those exchanges happened during hearings before the Senate Appropriations Committee, which Collins chairs, on budget requests.

A leaked federal government memo estimated that Maine had as many as 270 large-scale illegal marijuana grows connected to organized crime groups in China. The memo’s authors noted that the money may be used to further crime in the U.S. or be sent back to China. These operations generate an estimated $4.37 billion in revenue.

Last year, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency said it was investigating criminal syndicates running illegal grows in at least 20 states. 

In one of those hearings, Collins called on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to commit to an “all-of-government effort” to shut down these grow houses and expressed hope that President Donald Trump’s detailed budget request would include money to support state, county and local police efforts to combat them.

“Obviously, we’re very concerned with securing our border and knowing who’s coming into our country illegally, but also who’s already here. And so, you pointing out the fact that we have investments in this country, businesses, and marijuana grow houses that have a presence of ties to the PRC [People’s Republic of China] is incredibly alarming,” Noem told Collins.

Criminal organizations have been active in running illegal marijuana grow houses in Maine since about 2022, according to a letter from Collins to the director of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency. At the time, law enforcement knew of as many as 30 to 40 such sites in Maine, including in Winterport, where one such home burned after grow lamps and fans overloaded the circuits.

But these operations received greater scrutiny after the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office found an illegal marijuana grow house in Carmel, where police seized 3,400 plants and 111 pounds of processed marijuana in late June 2023. As the year dragged on, police uncovered other large illegal marijuana operations in Dexter, Wilton, Machias and other communities.

Since the beginning of 2024, police have been active in busting these large operations, which have been found all over rural Maine, from Brownville, Guilford, Milo and Sangerville in Piscataquis County, to Corinna, Eddington, Holden and Passadumkeag in Penobscot County, to Turner in Androscoggin County, to Anson, Canaan, Cornville, Harmony, Madison, Mercer, Norridgewock, Ripley, Skowhegan, Solon and St. Albans in Somerset County, to Jay in Franklin County, to Belgrade, China, Chelsea, Farmingdale and Manchester in Kennebec County, to Jefferson and Whitefield in Lincoln County, to Mexico in Oxford County, to Belmont and Freedom in Waldo County, to Parsonsfield in York County, among other communities.

In another hearing, Collins pressed FBI Director Kash Patel on his agency’s strategy and allocation of resources to combat these operations.

“These grow houses are destroying homes; they’re threatening our communities, our public health, and our national security,” Collins said.

Patel said that the FBI has started to “reprioritize assets” to not just cover part but all of Maine. He added that “numerous new investigations” have been opened into these grow houses and that field offices have told him they need more agents to address this and other issues.

“And when we finish this redeployment cycle, hopefully within the next six to nine months, we will not only just have the manpower in the field, but at headquarters, I’ve prioritized intelligence collection against the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] that is directly tied to these marijuana grow houses,” Patel told Collins.

Collins noted that there may be as many as 200 such grow houses still operating in Maine.