The Maine Wire has obtained a copy of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s list of 270 properties in Maine that federal law enforcement believes are affiliated with Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations.
Additionally, we’ve obtained records from the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy that show, in a few limited cases, that the agency has revoked cannabis licenses acquired under the names of out-of-state operatives who are or were part of the illegal Chinese grows.
At the same time, we have obtained Maine law enforcement records that show the Maine State Police have been aware of the activities of “Chinese gangs from NY” since at least March 2021.
Taken together, the records offer an unprecedented look at how the federal government, Maine’s elected officials, law enforcement, and cannabis regulators have tried — and failed spectacularly — to reckon with the growing threat of Chinese organized crime in Maine.
At the center of the Chinese organized crime ring are Yen “Johnny” Hsein Wu, Shunwang Ding, Sheng Cheng Ye, Jung “Jason” Yen Tsai, and a series of properties and front companies organized around Green Future, LLC.
A Chinese Gang from New York
The OCP records published so far point to Green Future, LLC, its related individuals and companies, and the properties those entities control in and around the Lewiston-Auburn area as an early hub for the activities of the Chinese drug gangs that would go on to proliferate throughout rural Maine.
Maine State Police records obtained by the Maine Wire via a Freedom of Access Act request show numerous responses to a large marijuana facility at 57 Conant Road in Turner, right next to the old Twitchell-Turner-Auburn Airport.
According to those incident reports, the Maine State Police (MSP) knew as early as March 2021 that the facility was “possibly run by a Chinese gang from NY.” This information comes from a police report written after an MSP trooper was dispatched to the location at the request of a New York City police detective in search of a Chinese woman who had been missing for more than a month.
According to a March 2021 Maine State Police (MSP) incident report, a New York City Police Department detective called MSP regarding a Chinese woman who had gone to Maine to “start a business” but had gone missing. The family in New York had heard from the woman, whose name is redacted from the records, and it’s not clear from the records how or whether the case was resolved. But in that filing, an MSP trooper notes that the 57 Conant Road location “was a marijuana growing facility possibly run by a Chinese gang from NY.”
Over the next two years, the local police, the Androscoggin Sheriff’s Department, and MSP would respond to Green Future’s location several times. On each occasion, the records show that law enforcement encountered a confusing scene, very few individuals who could speak English, and various disputes over illegally grown cannabis.
On one occasion, MSP troopers responding to a 911 call found themselves in the middle of what is cordially described as a dispute between the “case manager” and the “CEO” of the black-market marijuana growing operation and some “ex-employees.” Amid linguistic difficulties — that is, everyone involved spoke primarily Mandarin or Cantonese and no way spoke English very well — the trooper discerned that he’d been called to the scene of a gangland power struggle.
“It appeared that they were trying to get in touch with someone, because they said they had multiple supervisors, and that [REDACTED] did not have the authority to fire them,” the trooper stated in the incident report.
The trooper managed to convey to the disgruntled Chinese pot farmers via Google Translate that they were not welcome — for the time being — at the unlicensed drug manufacturing facility.
In another Jan. 2022 instance, a 911 caller claimed that 20 people were being held hostage by armed men amid on ongoing burglary at the facility. By the time law enforcement arrived, though, the situation had devolved from a violent criminal matter into a civil dispute over who owned marijuana at the location and who was in charge.
According to real estate records, MSP records, OCP complaints, corporate records, interviews with knowledgeable sources, and Homeland Security records, the activity emanating from 57 Conant Road was linked to several licensed medical marijuana caregivers. Those caregivers included Yen “Johnny” Hsein Wu, Shunwang Ding, Sheng Cheng Ye, Jung “Jason” Yen Tsai, and a series of properties and front companies organized around Green Future, LLC.
Johnny Wu Organics
Johnny Wu, the charismatic and well-spoken Chief Farming Officer behind Johnny Wu Organics, arrived in Maine from Massachusetts in November 2019. According to his LinkedIn account, which was deleted after the Maine Wire began making some inquiries, Wu previously worked as a software developer and business owner in Taiwan and Chengdu, China prior to coming to the U.S. The details of Wu’s immigration to the U.S. remain unclear, though it appears he followed his sister to Massachusetts.
In Massachusetts, Wu made several attempted forays into the restaurant business that resulted in federal bankruptcy cases in 2006, 2008, and 2011, according to records reviewed by the Maine Wire.
Wu filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in 2005, but the case was dismissed because Wu never provided proof of his income.
In 2008, Wu filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, listing liabilities of $719,480.11 and assets totaling $80. Wu further indicated that he owed $5,000 in unpaid taxes, as well as unpaid child support and alimony.
As part of that filing, Wu listed massive debts to other Massachusetts residents, which appear to be personal loans. Those debts included $260,000 borrowed from Huang Fen Fen Wu of Brookline, $170,000 borrowed from Kai Luen Hsu of Brighton, Massachusetts, and $31,000 borrowed from Jenny Kwong of Braintree, Massachusetts. The whole case was dismissed when Wu failed to appear for scheduled meetings, would not cooperate with the investigation, and imposed “unreasonable” delays.
In a 2010 bankruptcy court filing, Wu again claimed that he was deeply in debt, with $594,275.08 in liabilities and just $398 in assets, along with some unpaid child support obligations. The filings show that he was the owner of a defunct Japanese food restaurant in Brookline, Mass., Tsunami Japanese Cuisine, from 2001 to 2006.
The bankruptcy documents never indicate what Wu’s relationship was with the individuals who lent him large amounts of money or the terms of those loans. None of Wu’s bankruptcy filings were ever discharged by the courts in Massachusetts, meaning Wu remains ostensibly liable for those debts—unless he’s found a means of paying them off.
After moving to Maine in 2019, Wu became a well-known figure at grow shops, cannabis dispensaries, and hardware stores from Lewiston to Dexter. He obtained a Maine driver’s license using an address in Lewiston, where he was sometimes seen with his wife and child or driving his black Mercedes.
By December 2020, he had applied for approval from the City of Gardiner to operate a medical marijuana facility on Brunswick Ave. out of an old meat locker that he had rented from Steve McGee. In August 2021, the city green-lit his marijuana cultivation business.
Wu’s cannabis enterprise—at least, the one for which he obtained a license—came to a halt—at least, on paper—on Nov. 6, 2023, when OCP Director of Compliance Michael W. Field informed him that his license had been revoked for serial violations of the Maine Medical Use of Cannabis Act.
According to Field’s letter, Wu had repeatedly been found in violation of his plant count limits, failed to maintain adequate business records, illegally purchased marijuana from unlicensed growers, sold illicitly produced cannabis, and allowed “employees” to assist illegally with aspects of his cannabis growing. In short, Wu wasn’t following any of the myriad rules that the OCP regularly harasses Maine’s medical marijuana growers about.
The letter also indicates that Wu repeatedly attempted to mislead or deceive OCP inspectors.
The letter gave Wu 30 days to appeal the finding, but he didn’t ask for an appeal hearing.
Instead, business continued as usual at the Gardiner cannabis cultivation facility, according to a Gardiner City official familiar with the operation.
After Wu’s license was revoked, McGee’s property showed no signs of ceasing operation. When a Gardiner code enforcement officer made contact with an occupant of the facility to inform them they could no longer grow cannabis because Wu’s license had been suspended, the individual could not speak English.
So she called someone to help translate: It was Johnny Wu.
A short time later, in March 2024, the 563 Brunswick Ave location re-emerged with a new veneer of legality, this time under the auspices of Bin Yang, a recent arrival from New York City who had obtained a medical cannabis license in July 2023.
It’s unclear how much McGee knew about Wu’s operations (he did not return a phone call or an email for this story), but documents obtained by the Maine Wire show that, rather than renting directly to Yang this time around, McGee used an LLC under his control to serve as the property owner that subsequently rented to Yang.
Since that time, the Gardiner location has continued to function as a medical marijuana grow without any public issues with the OCP. At the same time, the facility’s driveway has seen a steady stream of different vehicles with New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York license plates.
The process that OCP went through trying to regulate a medicinal caregiver, Wu, who showed no interest in following the rules is an example of a process that has played out with other marijuana growers in Wu’s orbit.
That is, an individual from New York or Massachusetts will obtain a medicinal license. The individual will proceed to grow marijuana in a manner that maximizes profitability while showing little regard for the rules and regulations. After multiple OCP inspections over the course of the year find violations, the individual will lose their license.
However, in Wu’s case and others, the money-making marijuana business never slows down, the bosses at the top never change, and a new medicinal license holder is simply cycled in to present OCP with a technically compliant “front” that allows OCP to consider its job done.
In addition to the Gardiner operation, Wu was involved—and may still be involved—with a host of other cannabis growing facilities, both licensed and unlicensed, throughout several counties in Maine.
One such property was located at the former Bass Shoe Factory in Wilton, which was the subject of a raid that seized more than $1 million in illicit cannabis on Nov. 28, 2023, just weeks after Wu was stripped of his license.
According to Wilton town officials and sources familiar with the large growing operation at 128 Weld in Wilton, Wu was the “business manager” for a collection of licensed marijuana growers who were renting the space.
The four marijuana growers — Jackie Jackson Zheng and Xiong Wei Huang of Hallowell, and Shi Ang Chen and Biyan Huang of Livermore Falls — had obtained medicinal caregiver licenses; however, the growing activities at 128 Weld collectively amounted to far more cannabis than was covered under their licenses.
After the raid, however, the growers enlisted the services of an American cannabis consultant who was able to persuade local officials that the violations at 128 Weld were not the fault of the licensed caregivers. Instead, the fault belonged to their business manager, Wu, who would no longer be party to the Wilton growing operation were it to be re-licensed, which it was.
Currently, the four-licensee medicinal marijuana grow in Wilton, which bears a striking resemblance to the “collective” type of growing operation that is prohibited under OCP’s rules, continues to function.
But according to several municipal officials who have spoken about Wu with the Maine Wire, the Wilton raid contributed to Wu being been blacklisted by the OCP from involvement in any cannabis businesses. Municipal officials who learned that Johnny Wu was involved in a cannabis operation were advised to immediately call the OCP.
But that hasn’t caused Wu to abandon his cannabis-related hustles in Maine.
Wu was also involved in the unlicensed marijuana growing and selling operation at 57 Conant Road in Turner. That property was owned by Green Future, LLC, and is mentioned frequently in OCP and Maine State Police documents.
According to a security professional who asked to remain anonymous, Wu requested him to perform security system installation work at the Turner facility, but he declined the work because Wu insisted that the company use only Chinese-made products.
Multiple legal marijuana business owners have also told the Maine Wire that they recall receiving inquiries from Wu, calling under the guise of Green Future, LLC, asking whether they would purchase cut-rate cannabis from him or help him process cheap cannabis for a lucrative fee.
In addition, the Oct. 2019 mortgage agreement Green Future, LLC used to purchase the 57 Conant Road facility lists the following directors: George “Gang Gang” Zeng, Manager; Guo Chen, Manager; Yen-Hsein Wu, Manager (a.k.a. Johnny Wu); and Jung Yen Tsai, Manager (a.k.a. Jason Tsai).
Green Future, LLC is now defunct — at least in the eyes of the Maine Secretary of State’s corporate records department. But the sprawling enterprise has several other hydra heads, all controlled by what the Maine State Police called a “Chinese gang from NY,” and what Homeland Security Investigations has called Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations.
Those other corporate entities include Blue Future Corporation, TZ Development, LLC, Green Supply, LLC, Sunday River Area Corporation, RL Care LLC, Wilton Organic LLC, and more. In addition to those business entities, the criminal network emanating from Green Future, LLC, and its conspirators also controls properties throughout Maine, several of which appear on the Homeland Security list of properties suspected of ties to foreign criminal activities backed by the Communist Party of China.
According to reports from marijuana businesses around the state, Wu has spent the rest of 2023 looking for marijuana dispensaries to buy out or in which he could become a silent partner.
With the publication of Wu’s license revocation by OCP, it’s unclear how successful he’ll be in trying to retain a foothold in Maine’s cannabis industry.
Yet still, even with the limited police records the Maine Wire has obtained and the OCP disciplinary documents that have become public, there is much, much more to the story of Green Future, LLC and the activities of Wu’s associates.
In particular, much remains to be written about the American businessmen, lawyers, and licensed cannabis businesses—in some cases well-known Mainers—who have aided, abetted, and in some cases become wealthy through their relationships with foreign criminal operators.
A future article in the Triad Weed series will explore the other activities of Green Future, LLC, the happenings at 57 Conant Road, and the travails of Wu’s many associates.
You can find the Maine Wire’s entire Triad Weed series here
- Triad Weed: How Chinese Marijuana Grows Took Over Rural Maine
- Maine Gov. Janet Mills’ Brother Helped Transfer Nine-Acre Black Market Cannabis Grow to Chinese National “Mother” Living in Guangdong Province
- How the U.S. Treasury Department Helps Chinese Organized Crime Transform American Homes Into Drug Dens
- Maine Sheriff Raids Another Black Market Drug House Run by Chinese Organized Crime — Cannabis and Meth Seized
- The Restaurateur: Bangor Business Owner Linked to Illicit Marijuana Grows
- Raid on Illegal Chinese Marijuana Operation in Western Maine Seizes Illicit Drugs Worth $1M+
- Three Chinese Nationals Caught Sneaking Into Maine from Canada Amid Asian Organized Crime Epidemic
- The Triad’s Electrician: Meet the 87-Year-Old “Frontman” for Chinese Marijuana Grows in Maine
- Welcomed to Maine by LePage, Eastport Seafood Biz Devolved Into Illicit Marijuana Trafficking Operation with Ties to Hong Kong
- One NYC Bank Financed More Than 50 Illicit Chinese Marijuana Grow Houses in Rural Maine
- Second Chinese National Arrested in Connection with Illegal Marijuana Grows in Maine Faces Federal Charges
- Maine Sheriff Raids 20th Chinese Mafia Drug House of 2024
- Maine State Police Raid Illicit Marijuana Grow in York County Linked to NH Restaurant
- Collins Grills FBI Chief Wray Over Chinese Mafia Drug Trafficking in Maine
- WATCH: CBS Morning News Features Maine Wire’s Steve Robinson and Triad Weed Investigative Series
- Triad Weed: Here Are All the Raids Maine Cops Have Conducted on Illegal Chinese Drug Trafficking Operations
- Illegal Marijuana Vexes Northern Maine Town Officials as Out-of-State Criminals Prosper
- Maine Sheriff Busts Trio of Brooklynites as Crackdown on Triad Drug Trafficking Continues – Maine State Police AWOL
Thank-you for doing all this work and reporting it.
Well….since “law enforcement” isn’t going to do a thing about this ongoing problem, maybe it’s time to sell my house, and farm to the Chinese ? They seem to be the only ones with any money in this failed state.
“…Homeland Security list of properties suspected of ties to foreign criminal activities backed by the Communist Party of China.” Yet, nothing is done by the Mills administration to shut them down. Following the money and drilling down on who is getting greased should be the focus here on in. Otherwise, this mess will continue.
The entire Maine government is not capable of handling this law. The failure starts at the top with the Democratic Governor. She is responsible for the failure to enforce the rules, enforce the rules, and collect the tax money lost. Step down and be locked up you failure. Second the members of her party under her should as responsible party members have her step down. She and her staff make us look like we are a bunch of dumb hicks here in Maine! Third, the leadership at the National level should ask for help from the Federal level
as this involves international powers and Maine Government officials cannot handle the State failures, not alone the international involvement with China
.Googl the tope 100 US companies owned by the PPC for an eye opener.
Just shows how our independent A. King is in with them.
Milles showed be investigated by the Feds.
What are our tax dollars used for?
If they can get away with this, what will they think of next? Drugs? Human trafficking? Sex slavery?
As long as Janet ‘the toad’Mills is getting her cut and lining her pockets, nothing will change!
If Maine’s Law Enforcement won’t shut these illegal Chinese operations diwn, maybe it’s time Maine Patriots start doing it!
‘Trump Picks Charles Kushner, Jared Kushner’s Criminal Father, for Ambassador to France‘
https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=64759
It‘s that legal to expose this lady‘s ID online without any permission？And telling about her story with your assumption？No evidence to support the story and post someone‘s personal information on public？How dare you？