Chairman Brecheen: “This Is Only Scratching the Surface of These Chinese Criminal Enterprises”

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-OK), chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability, delivered the following opening statement in a hearing to examine the national security threats posed by Chinese criminal organizations operating illicit marijuana farms across America, including in Oklahoma.

Watch Chairman Brecheen's full opening statement in a hearing entitled, "Invasion of the Homeland: How China is Using Illegal Marijuana to Build a Criminal Network Across America."

As prepared for delivery:

Good afternoon and welcome to the Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability hearing on how China is using illegal marijuana to build a criminal network across the United States.

First, I would like to welcome the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Al Green, who will serve on the Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability subcommittee for the remainder of the 119th Congress. I look forward to working with you.

We are here today to talk about an important issue with potentially significant national security implications. This issue has been prevalent not just in my state of Oklahoma, but in many other states from Maine to California, all across our homeland.

Let me paint you a picture: A group of Chinese nationals affiliated with a criminal organization cross the Southern border and make their way to rural Oklahoma. With them are workers who have been lured under false promises of good jobs in the United States.

When in Oklahoma, some Chinese nationals approach a local resident with an offer they can't refuse. The Chinese nationals offer the resident several hundred thousand dollars in cash to purchase a nearby tract of land under the resident's name. In return, the resident gets to keep a share of the money with no questions asked. The deal is quick and simple.

In a matter of days, the newly purchased land becomes the site of a large-scale, illegal marijuana grow operation.

The workers find themselves forced to work 14-hour days under the watch of armed guards-all while being confined to small living quarters with minimal running water or air conditioning.

The smell of toxic, illegally smuggled Chinese pesticides used to grow the marijuana fills the air-causing serious health issues.

Hundreds of pounds of illegal-and potentially contaminated-marijuana is produced and eventually ends up in our communities, anywhere from Oklahoma to New York.

This is just one hypothetical example of a Chinese grow operation in my state of Oklahoma-a state that has had up to 12,000 of these operations ongoing at one time.

Sadly, as we will learn today, this is only scratching the surface of these Chinese criminal enterprises. Many Chinese-operated illegal grow operations serve as fronts for a wider criminal enterprise, including human and drug trafficking, prostitution, weapons smuggling, and money laundering.

And while the example I highlighted takes place in my home state of Oklahoma, similar patterns are repeated in other states like Maine, Massachusetts, and California. In fact, there are thousands of these grow operations dispersed throughout our entire country-including in our national parks and tribal lands.

We have an excellent panel of expert witnesses before us today who are going to walk us through how this issue affects the homeland. Before we get to their testimony, I want to offer an important point of clarification.

The goal of today's hearing is not to debate the issue of decriminalizing or rescheduling marijuana at the federal level. Everyone has opinions on that, but I want to focus our conversation on the serious crimes taking place inside of these illegal grow sites, as well as how Chinese transnational criminal organizations, many with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), are setting up these sites across the homeland as they expand an underground criminal network right here in our backyard.

We are holding this hearing today because we have enabled potential agents of the Chinese Communist Party to build a sophisticated and concerted criminal network,under the guise of these marijuana grow operations, throughout the United States, which enables a wide range of criminal activity and presents unique threats to our national security.

This is a convergence of organized crime, human and drug trafficking, and public health risks, which all operate at a scale and sophistication that crosses state and national lines and is beyond the normal capabilities of state and local law enforcement. These agencies need the help of federal law enforcement to unravel these criminal networks.

This network must be uncovered and eliminated from our homeland. It's really that simple. The potential threats associated with having a fully operational criminal network from our number one foreign adversary on our soil are too great to ignore.

I look forward to an informative and productive discussion with our witnesses today, and I now turn it over to the Ranking Member for his opening remarks.

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