Congressman Urges FBI to Crack Down on Illegal Marijuana Farms in Northern California, Citing Possible Chinese Crime Links

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A Letter to the FBI

Rep. James Gallagher (R-Calif.) sent a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel on Monday, October 19. He asked the Bureau to step in against illegal cannabis cultivation in the far north of California.

The request follows reports from the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office about large-scale illegal growing and the use of undocumented labor. Local sheriffs in neighboring Shasta County have also backed the call for federal help.

Gallagher says the grows have hurt ranchers, drained groundwater and put residents' safety at risk.

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What Is Happening on the Ground

In some rural areas, whole properties are now covered in rows of plastic-covered tunnels, known as "hoop houses". Growers often fill them with water trucked in from nearby wells.

Gallagher's letter cites estimates of up to 7,000 illegal grows in the Mount Shasta Vista subdivision alone. He says the activity has also spread onto federal land, including the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.

The sheriff's office says it destroyed 332,871 plants and seized 54,070 pounds of processed marijuana in 2025. Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue says his deputies have made more than 800 cultivation-related arrests over five years, with little help from state or federal agencies.

Local farmers say they now compete with the grows for scarce groundwater. They also fear that chemicals could contaminate their land.

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Toxic Pesticides and Safety Risks

County investigators have found at least 27 pesticide compounds at illegal grow sites. Some are banned in the United States. Some containers carried Chinese-language labels, which officials say may point to illegal imports.

Officials warn that these chemicals could endanger residents, deputies and first responders.

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The China Question

Gallagher's main concern is who stands behind the operations. He says investigators have traced grow properties to people living outside the county, while those running the sites often have no visible ownership stake. In his view, this raises the question of whether the setup is meant to hide the real financiers.

To make his case, he points to a 2018 federal investigation in California. Authorities said that operation was funded with money from China. It led to forfeiture actions against more than 100 properties in the Sacramento area, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California.

Sheriff LaRue has told media that roughly 60 percent of the growers his deputies meet at Shasta Vista are Chinese. He also alleges ties to Chinese criminal groups. It is important to be precise here. These are allegations, and no evidence cited so far shows that the Chinese government directs the Siskiyou grows.

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A Wider National Concern

Siskiyou is not an isolated case. In 2024, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed a link between illegal grow operations and Chinese organized crime, according to a Senate release.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has pressed the Trump administration on the issue. Attorney General Pam Bondi told her she had met with Patel, the DEA and the ATF about it.

In September 2025, a House Homeland Security subcommittee held a hearing titled "Invasion of the Homeland: How China Is Using Illegal Marijuana to Build a Criminal Network Across America."

Earlier this month, Sen. Pete Ricketts and several colleagues asked the Justice Department to investigate. Their letter cites the DEA's 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment, which says Chinese criminal organizations dominate marijuana cultivation in states with legal cannabis markets. It also notes that 29 Chinese nationals were charged in April 2026 in a nationwide black-market operation centered in Oklahoma.

The pattern fits a larger concern. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) runs a one-party state with a long record of opaque networks that reach into other countries. That makes careful scrutiny of Chinese-linked criminal money reasonable. At the same time, investigators stress that the targets are criminal networks, not Chinese Americans or Chinese communities in general.

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Background: Why California?

California legalized recreational marijuana in 2016, but the illegal market never disappeared. In remote counties like Siskiyou, cheap land, little oversight and a huge price gap between legal and black-market cannabis created room for large illegal operations. A grand jury report four years ago estimated that grows in Mount Shasta Vista could bring in up to $2 billion a year, according to local radio station KQMS.

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What Comes Next

Gallagher's letter is a request, not an order. Whether the FBI opens a formal investigation is up to Patel and his team. Local sheriffs say they need federal help to follow the money and identify who really owns the properties.

One political detail adds urgency. According to KQMS, Siskiyou and Shasta counties will no longer be part of Gallagher's district starting next year, so he may be pushing for action while he still represents them.

For now, the people living near the grows are waiting. Their wells are running low, and their questions about who profits remain unanswered.

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Sources

1. Fox News, "China ties suspected in sprawling California pot operations as GOP urges FBI probe": https://www.foxnews.com/politics/china-ties-suspected-sprawling-california-pot-operations-gop-urges-fbi-probe
2. KQMS Radio, "Gallagher Urges FBI To Help To Fight Illegal Cannabis Grows In Northern California": https://kqms.com/localnews/gallagher-urges-fbi-to-help-to-fight-illegal-cannabis-grows-in-northern-california/
3. IBTimes UK, "Siskiyou Sheriff Warns of Alleged Chinese-Linked Cannabis Network Amid Violence, Water Theft and $2bn Trade Claims": https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/siskiyou-sheriff-illegal-cannabis-grows-violence-1820226
4. U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, "Senator Collins Questions Secretary of Homeland Security, FBI Director on Illegal Marijuana Grow Operations in Maine": https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/majority/senator-collins-questions-secretary-of-homeland-security-fbi-director-on-illegal-marijuana-grow-operations-in-maine
5. U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, "Senator Collins Questions U.S. Attorney General on Federal Response to Illegal Marijuana Grows in Maine": https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/majority/senator-collins-questions-us-attorney-general-on-federal-response-to-illegal-marijuana-grows-in-maine
6. U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, hearing transcript (Sept. 18, 2025), "Invasion of the Homeland": https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-119hhrg62705/html/CHRG-119hhrg62705.htm
7. Office of Sen. Pete Ricketts, letter to the Justice Department on Chinese marijuana organizations: https://www.ricketts.senate.gov/news/press-releases/ricketts-colleagues-to-blanche-investigate-communist-chinas-criminal-marijuana-organizations/

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