he driver of a fake Amazon van said it was his boss’s idea to use the vehicle in their illegal marijuana operation in Oklahoma to avoid detection.
“My boss said it would be safe,” Brandon Ye told jurors last week in Oklahoma City federal court at a drug conspiracy trial.
Testifying as a prosecution witness, Ye said he picked up marijuana from 20 different Oklahoma grows for shipment out of state. He was paid $15 per pound.
Those grows had one main thing in common, according to his testimony.
“They’re all operated by Chinese nationals,” Ye, 43, said through a translator.
The testimony was the latest example of what law enforcement officials have been saying more and more often about the source of the corruption in the state’s medical marijuana grows.
“While … legalization led to … legitimate cannabis-related businesses throughout the state, organized criminals have overtaken the industry,” Attorney General Gentner Drummond told the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee on Jan. 10.
“Our law enforcement partners report that the foreign nationals most often involved in these illegal enterprises come from China and Mexico,” he said.
Ye, the owner of an Oklahoma City kitchen countertop business, was arrested March 31 at his warehouse as he and others packaged marijuana for shipment out of state in a semitrailer.
Ye pleaded guilty in September to two counts — possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime. He is awaiting sentencing.
His testimony came at the trial for Jeff Weng, manager of a licensed grow near Wetumka, and Tong Lin, a management intern at the grow. Jurors Thursday found them guilty of conspiring to possess and distribute 1,000 or more marijuana plants.
Sean Hocking
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