PHOTO COURTESY OKLAHOMA BUREAU OF NARCOTICS
Five people were arrested and charged after state and local drug enforcement officers discovered an illegal grow facility operating adjacent to a registration applicant, south of Davis, last week.
Officers from the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics’ Marijuana Enforcement Teams (MET) were conducting an inspection of the registration applicant when they discovered an additional indoor marijuana grow facility next door at 1750 U.S. Highway 77, officials said.
The indoor facility was operating without an OMMA license or OBN registration, officials said, and a search warrant was then obtained and executed at that location.
All total, law enforcement seized 11,771 marijuana plants and 545 pounds of processed flower marijuana.
The five individuals arrested were charged with illegal cultivation of marijuana, aggravated manufacture of marijuana, and trafficking of marijuana. Those individuals were: Wenhua Chen, Yuejha Jhuang, Meihua Lian, Jingding Qiu, and Jianshem Wu.
OBN was assisted at the scene by the Murray County Sheriff’s Office and District 3 County Commissioner Darrell Hudson, who provided a dump truck in the disposal of the marijuana.
Since 2021, OBN’s Marijuana Enforcement Teams have shut down over 3,000 marijuana grows, arrested over 300 individuals and seized over one million pounds of marijuana as part of criminal investigations for operating with a license obtained by fraud and/or growing for the outof- state black market, according to the agency’s website. As a result of these OBN enforcement efforts, Oklahoma’s medical marijuana program has seen a drastic reduction in the number of criminal organizations operating illegal farms in Oklahoma, officials said this week. OBN registrations for growers dropped from 9,400 in 2021, to 6,400 in 2022, and today that number is down to approximately 3,200.
Anyone with information about criminal drug activity can anonymously DM details to OBN via Facebook or call the OBN Tip-line at 1-800-522-8031.
