Oklahoma law enforcement investigators link 800 marijuana farms to organized crime – Law Officer

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics has an ongoing investigation that has linked sex trafficking, prostitution and drug trafficking to multiple medical marijuana farms in Oklahoma, the agency announced Friday.

An Asian organized crime network recruited undocumented Asian women to work as prostitutes for people running several pot farms across the state, a spokesman said in a news release. They are also engaged in trafficking ketamine, a drug that is abused by recreational users. It is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic effects, Tulsa World reported.

A team of investigators from state and county law enforcement agencies served four search warrants at residences in the Oklahoma City area Thursday as part of the investigation. As a result, two people were taken into custody on narcotic charges and two women working as prostitutes were removed from a brothel. Investigators seized cash, a firearm, ketamine and several unidentified pills.

Participating in the investigation were agents from the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control, deputies from the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office and investigators with the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office.

The spokesman said additional arrests are possible as the investigation continues forward.

OBN Director Donnie Anderson noted the investigation is simply one of several ongoing cases that are focused on several criminal organizations linked to medical marijuana farms in the Sooner State.

“Over the past two years, my agency has shut down over 800 medical marijuana farms tied to organized crime in Oklahoma, seized more than 600,000 pounds of illegal marijuana and made nearly 200 arrests,” Anderson said in the release, according to Tulsa World.

“Many of the farms obtained their license by fraud, grow for the black markets around the United States and launder the illicit proceeds, world-wide. They also have been linked to homicides, labor trafficking, sex trafficking, and other crimes.”