Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond told Kingfisher Rotarians last Tuesday that there were more than 9,000 marijuana grow farms operating in Oklahoma when he took office in 2023 and now there are approximately 1,650 left.

One of the frontrunners in next November’s election for governor, Drummond was the guest speaker at the civic group’s meeting.

He was elected attorney general in November 2022 and took office in January 2023.

Drummond said during his time in office, most marijuana grows have been shut down due to illegal aliens from China and Mexico operating the farms and almost 90 percent of over 100,000 illegal aliens operating the facilities have now been transported back to China and Mexico.

He said the illegal operations that have been shut down were “highly organized” and were run in tandem by the Communist Chinese government and Mexican drug cartels. He said not only were they selling marijuana into the illegal drug trade network, but were also involved in human sex slave trafficking as well as the distribution of fentanyl, which is a synthetic opioid that is the number one cause of illegal drug overdose in the United States.

A “perfect storm” of permissive early regulations, low operating costs and lax enforcement created an opportunity for organized crime to establish these thousands of illicit marijuana grow farms, Drummond said.

The initial policies were intended to support the medical marijuana program when voters passed a referendum in 2018, but widespread fraud immediately crept in as foreign crime syndicates used local “straw owners” to illegally secure thousands of licenses.

These were immediately exploited to create a massive black market that funneled products all over the United States because of Oklahoma’s location on the intersection of interstate highways (I-35 and I-40).

Drummond said that 67 percent of all black market marijuana sold in the state of New Jersey comes from Oklahoma.

At it’s zenith of operation, over $8 billion was generated in revenue annually through these illegal grows in Oklahoma for Chinese and Mexican drug cartels.

He closed by stating that at one time over 15 illegal grow operations were being closed daily, and the legal pursuit of criminals involved in the illegal drug trade was ongoing.

Drummond was joined at the meeting by Kingfisher native Rob Johnson, the former state senator who serves as Drummond’s chief of staff.