A third defendant has been arrested and charged in Kingfisher County District Court in connection with an alleged illegal medical marijuana grow facility where four people were murdered in late November.

Richard Ignacio, 35, of Oklahoma City, the allegedly false majority owner of Liu & Chen Inc., was arrested last week on a charge of felony conspiracy against the state.

Ignacio is charged with conspiring with Yifei Lin, 44, the sole surviving victim of the Nov. 20 mass shooting, to fraudulently obtain a license from the Oklahoma Medical MarijuanA Authority and a registration from the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics for the marijuana farm west of Hennessey.

Lin, a Chinese national who was critically wounded in the shooting, was charged in early December with the same conspiracy offense, plus a second felony count of aggravated manufacture of a controlled dangerous substance or possession of material with intent to manufacture.

Lin pleaded not guilty to the charges Dec. 14 and remains jailed in the Kingfisher County Criminal Justice Center, with a $200,000 bond.

Lin also faces prosecution in Oklahoma County for his alleged role in a 2020 nonfatal shooting in Oklahoma City.

He also is the record owner of the 10-acre tract where the Liu & Chen grow facility is located at 2730 N 2760 Road, Hennessey, which is the subject of a separate civil forfeiture action filed by the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics.

Lin is listed as the 25% owner and Ignacio the 75% owner of Liu & Chen Inc., allegedly to meet state law requirements that at least 75% of a medical marijuana business be owned by an Oklahoma resident.

Ignacio was interviewed the day after the county shooting and allegedly told law enforcement he had no investment or involvement in any marijuana business other than allowing his name to be used on licensing paperwork in exchange for money paid to him, according to OBN affidavits.

In a recorded OBN interview, Ignacio told agents he made $100,000 over the last two years from marijuana farms where his name was used to fraudulently obtain medical marijuana licenses.

Kevin Pham, 44, who is listed as the registered agent for Liu & Chen Inc. and dozens of other marijuana grow facilities in the state, was arrested two days after the November shooting after OBN agents served a search warrant at his Oklahoma City business.

In addition to drugs and firearms, agents allegedly found “records of communications alleged to be associated with Pham [which] revealed evidence... consistent with the unlawful diversion of marijuana.”

Ignacio told agents he is paid approximately $2,000 per month for each OMMA license, according to the OBN affidavit.

Pham allegedly acted as a middleman, collecting payments from Lin and others and forwarding a portion to Ignacio.

Ignacio also provided agents with his cell phone, which contained a text thread where Ignacio asks Pham whether Lin ever made it in to pay because he owed for November and December.

An online court records search showed no charges filed against Pham as of Thursday afternoon when this issue went to press.

Mark Woodward, OBN public information officer, told the Times & Free Press that charges may be filed against Pham next week.

Wu Chen, 44, the Chinese national charged with the quadruple homicide, remains jailed without bond and is scheduled to return to court Jan. 27.

Ignacio was released on $20,000 bond Thursday and is scheduled to return to court at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday for his initial appearance on the conspiracy charge.

Lin’s next court appearance is Jan. 17.

Woodward told the Times & Free Press that his agency has shut down close to 200 marijuana farms statewide, “all smaller pieces of bigger investigations.” “The people moving plants and money from these farms are tied to organized crime,” he said.

“We need to work with federal partners on complex, lengthy investigations to take everyone down.”

Woodward said homicides have been tied to the state’s medical marijuana industry “going almost back to the beginning,” after voters approved a constitutional amendment legalizing the drug in 2018.

But the Kingfisher County shooting has been by far the highest profile event, he said.

“We’ve gotten calls from Chinese newspapers,” he said. “It’s garnered worldwide attention.

“That’s what make it unusual becasue drug cartels usually don’t want to draw attention to themselves because they don’t want to strengthen law enforcement presence.”

Woodward wouldn’t comment specifically on whether any other county farms are being investigated for ties to illegal drug activity.

“But I can say that there are farms in all 77 counties under investigation,” he said.

In the Oklahoma City case, Lin is scheduled for preliminary hearing next month on charges of assault and battery with a deadly weapon, marijuana traffi cking, acquiring proceeds from drug activity and possession of ketamine with intent to distribute.

He Qiang Chen, 56, one of the four local murder victims at the Liu & Chen Inc. marijuana grow site, also had been charged in the Oklahoma City shooting incident, according to online court records.

According to Oklahoma County District Court documents, Chen allegedly ordered Lin to shoot another man on Dec. 8, 2020, over a financial dispute.

The victim of that shooting Jintao Liu, allegedly told police that he and Chen agreed to become partners in a marijuana grow in Oklahoma.

He said He Qiang Chen, Lin and two other men confronted him in a Oklahoma City parking lot where Lin allegedly shot him in the leg.

The OBN notice of seizure states that law enforcement searched an Edmond residence in connection with the Oklahoma City investigation on Jan. 20, 2021, and found documents related to Lin’s purchase of the Kingfisher County property, 27 bundles of processed marijuana, a quantity of Ketamina and more than $95,000 in cash.

Law enforcement arrested Lin on the Oklahoma City charge that same day at the Liu & Chen facility, Kingfisher County Sheriff Dennis Banther told the Times & Free Press.

Both Lin and Chen were free on bonds of $250,000 each while awaiting prosecution on the Oklahoma City felony charges when a man allegedly identified as Wu Chen entered the garage on the Kingfisher County property where they were located, along with other workers.

Wu Chen allegedly shot and killed He Qiang Chen and three other Chinese nationals and injured Lin, who fled the building and was found critically wounded in the bed of a pickup truck outside when law enforcement arrived.

In a search of the facility the next day, the OBN seized 1,971 pounds of processed marijuana in pre-packaged one-pound bags and 4,675 marijauna plants in various stages of growth.

The notice alleges that the Kingfisher County facility was used or intended to be used for “the illegal cultivation, manufacturing, trafficking and distribution of marijuana from December 2020 through February 2022.”