New York woman pleads guilty to maintaining an illegal marijuana grow house

Date: Jan. 12, 2026

Contact: [email protected]

Bangor, ME - A New York woman pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Bangor to maintaining a marijuana-involved premises.

According to court records, Jiamin Liao of New York City purchased a residence in Madison for the purposes of manufacturing and distributing marijuana. In March 2024, Somerset County Sheriff's Office personnel executed a state search warrant at Liao's property in Madison, as well as at a related property she owned in Norridgewock. Investigators found 551 marijuana plants at the Madison property, along with chemicals (including Eagle 20 EW) and a variety of grow equipment. Liao was located at her property in Norridgewock, where she was found with approximately 30 pounds of processed marijuana. When interviewed by law enforcement, Liao admitted that she grew the processed marijuana at the Madison property. She further admitted to packaging the marijuana into one-pound bags and storing the product at the property in Norridgewock.

Liao faces up to 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $500,000. She will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigative report by the U.S. Probation Office. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Neither Liao nor her property was licensed through the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy.

The FBI, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigated the case, with assistance provided by the Somerset County Sheriff's Office.

This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. The Maine HSTF comprises agents and officers from FBI; HSI; DEA; IRS-Criminal Investigation; U.S. Marshals Service; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Diplomatic Security Service; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; U.S. Border Patrol; Coast Guard Investigative Service; and Transportation Security Administration, with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Maine.

IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 19 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.