Search warrant sheds light on efforts to shut down illegal marijuana grows in Maine

By Marie Weidmayer, Bangor Daily News Staff

Federal agents searched four properties suspected of growing illegal marijuana in rural Maine this spring, according to newly unsealed court records.

The search warrants were filed under seal March 17, in U.S. District Court of Maine in Bangor. They targeted four properties in rural Maine: 336 Zion Hills Road in Dexter, 739 Sandy River Road in Norridgewock, 38 Tripp Road in Ripley and 113 Cross Road in Stetson.

The warrants were requested by Maine Drug Enforcement Agency Special Agent Jonathan Richards, who also works with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The FBI and Homeland Security Investigations were also involved in the investigations.

The 50-page warrant request unsealed Friday provides insight into the federal government’s ongoing work to shut down illegal marijauna grow facilities across the state. The years-long effort has resulted in thousands of pounds of marijuana seized in numerous raids.

Police searched the properties within days of the warrant being issued, but only seized one item, according to court records. A memory card was taken from the front door camera at the Norridgewock property.

Agents took pictures at all four locations, court records said. 

Police knew it was unlikely that marijuana was still being grown at the locations at the time of the raid based on various factors, but Richards said there would still likely be useful evidence.

The federal government started cracking down on illegal marijuana grows after a leaked federal memo, first obtained by the conservative Daily Caller and published August 2023, estimated that Maine had as many as 270 large-scale illegal marijuana grows connected to organized crime groups in China.

Thousands of pounds of marijuana have been seized in the years since. In July seven people were charged in what prosecutors describe as a multimillion-dollar illegal marijuana growing, human trafficking and money laundering operation in Maine and Massachusetts.

People involved in the operations in Dexter, Ripley, Norridgewock and Stetson are suspected of laundering the proceeds of the illegal marijuana cultivation, as well as using money obtained criminally to conduct transactions greater than $10,000, the warrant said.

The locations were also likely obtained through mortgage fraudulently, the warrant said. 

Two people, Larry Zhao and Wen Hui Li, are accused of operating the illegal marijuana grow houses. Zhao owns the Ripley and Stetson locations, the warrant said. Li owned property at 9 St. Albans Road in Corinna, which was used for growing illegal marijuana and seized by the federal government in February 2024.

There are no public criminal cases filed against the men in federal court.

Dexter, Stetson and Ripley used a large amount of electricity on a monthly basis from February 2021 to early 2024, according to records from Central Maine Power and Madison Electric Works in the warrant. Norridgewock had low electricity usage rates through summer 2024, but two people held two accounts each at the property from 2022 to 2024, the warrant said.

The Ripley and Stetson properties were using about 30,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a month from late 2021 to January 2024, the warrant said. An average U.S. household uses about 875 kWh a month, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The warrant lists $18,000 worth of wire transfers and checks between Zhao and Li in 2021. A bank account for Li also received deposits totalling $142,500 before he bought the Corinna property.

After the Corinna property owned by Li was raided in February 2024, electricity use at the Norridgewock, Ripley and Stetson locations saw a “significant decline,” the warrant said.

“I believe that each property was effectively shuttered by Larry Zhao and/or Wen Hui Li in order to evade law enforcement detection of illegal activities at the respective locations,” Richards wrote in the warrant.

Cellphone records show Li and Zhao were in “frequent and consistent contact” from 2022 to 2024. The men’s phones were seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection when they crossed from Canada into Washington together in April 2024. 

Zhao also had $11,000 in cash he did not initially declare.

A criminal investigations agent with the Internal Revenue Service searched Zhao’s phone and found a “significant amount” of communications about illegal marijauna growing and distribution at the Dexter, Stetson, Ripley and Norridgewock locations, the warrant said. 

The warrant does not include information about what was on Li’s phone or if it was searched.

Some of those messages were between Zhao and Li, which included a Jan. 31, 2023, discussion about concerns that police knew about the marijuana at the Dexter location. Marijuana growing stopped Feb. 4, 2023, according to text messages. A decline in electricity usage at the property backs up that information, the warrant said.

Zhao’s phone contained multiple photographs of income statements, as well as photos of marijauna in various stages of growth and processing, the warrant said.

Li and Zhao made at least 25 purchases at Home Depot and Walmart. The warrant doesn’t indicate what the purchases were but Richards said they were likely made to renovate the homes to grow marijuana inside.