A multi-state criminal investigation led to the arrest of 19 people, including the leader of an organization accused of illegal cannabis diversion and straw ownership of licensed businesses in Oklahoma for a Chinese criminal syndicate.
The operation involved 14 licensed cannabis businesses, according to a complaint filed by State Attorney General Genter Drummond in the Supreme Court of Oklahoma on Nov. 21, 2025.
Drummond announced his department’s Operation Blunt Force, which involved 27 other law enforcement organizations, on Feb. 3.
The leader of the organization, Hao Tong Chen, 35, was arrested Jan. 29, in New York City, Drummond said at a press conference. He is being held at Rykers Island prison in New York. Chen is a legal resident living in New York, according to Drummond’s press secretary.
Drummond said Chen is the “drug kingpin who masterminded a Chinese syndicated crime organization’s illegal drug operations across Oklahoma, New York, Nevada and Texas.” He later said cannabis was trafficked in Georgia, as well.
Operation Blunt Force was initiated on March 20, 2024. Chen and the other defendants of the Hao Chen Organization, as Drummond calls it, are accused of running a racketeering enterprise from November 2021 to October 2025.
Drummond said the enterprise manufactured marijuana at an “industrial scale,” approximately 1 million pounds worth $1.5 billion in street value, to divert into the black market in and out of Oklahoma. The operation also included money laundering, “large-scale conspiracies, and other racketeering activities.”
In 2024 and 2025, law enforcement executed search warrants, and the case was handed to a grand jury on Nov. 25. On Jan 29. and Jan. 30, officers arrested 19 people in multiple states including 11 syndication leaders, eight other participants, and “one bonus defendant who was at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Drummond said. Four additional people were deported.
The 19 people associated with the Hao Chen Organization have been charged with 18 criminal counts including racketeering, conspiracy to defraud the state, offering a false or forged instrument for record, aggravated manufacturing of a controlled dangerous substance, unlawful proceeds, and engaging in a pattern of criminal offenses.
“I am proud of the dedicated work of our Organized Crime Task Force and the remarkable collaboration it made possible,” Drummond said in a press release. “This task force was built to take on exactly these kinds of sophisticated, multi-state criminal enterprises, and Operation Blunt Force is a testament to what our team can accomplish when we work together with partners across the country.”
He added at the press conference, “Operation Blunt Force is exactly what criminal law enforcement looks like. And let me be clear, we are not done. As attorney general, I will continue to shut down marijuana operations across Oklahoma, we will target organized crime, we will continue to work with ICE, DEA and other federal partners, and we’ll exercise the law aggressively and fairly.”
OK residents recruited to be straw owners, open bank accounts
At the heart of his organization’s operations, Chen (also known as Bryan Chen and Andy Chen) and Erin Williams-Ream, 48, allegedly recruited and paid Oklahoma residents to fraudulently obtain cannabis manufacturing licenses from the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA). Fourteen businesses, three of which still have active licenses according to the CRB Monitor licensing database, were named in the complaint:
- Golden Farmer LLC and Bridge Creek Farms LLC in Grady County
- Rich Cultivation LLC and Healthy Cultivation LLC in Blaine County
- Portland Farm LLC, Eagle Budz LLC and AM Green Leaves LLC in Logan County
- FnH Wealth LLC in Payne County
- Feugene Farm LLC in Pottawatomie County
- Natural Herbal LLC in Kingfisher County
- Ream Farm LLC in Canadian County
- Snead Farm LLC in Creek County
- Produce Green LLC in Pawnee County
- Antarctic Ocean LLC in Garvin County
“These applications included false assertions, material misrepresentations, deceptive limited liability company operating agreements, forged signatures, falsified affidavits, and other fraudulent documents,” the complaint said.
The organization also allegedly manipulated their METRC seed-to-sale tracking system to ship the cannabis to the illegal black market. Overall, there were more than 20 LLCs and businesses involved, Drummond said.
The investigation remains ongoing, according to Drummond’s press secretary.
OMMA did not respond to a request for comment.
Four banks identified in the complaint
Drummond said financial transactions flowed to and from banks in Oklahoma, New York, Nevada, Texas, California, New Mexico, Missouri, Georgia, Illinois, Washington, Oregon and China. Only four Oklahoma banks were identified in the complaint, but they were not accused of wrongdoing.
William Randall Robinson, 50, is accused of opening an account at First Enterprise Bank in Britton, Okla., for Healthy Cultivation in Watonga. First Enterprise’s roots go back to the early 1900’s when founded as the North Oklahoma State bank. Under new ownership, it became a state-chartered bank in the 1970’s and changed its name to First Enterprise Bank in 1984. Today, First Enterprise offers a cannabis-related business banking platform.
Beverly Ann Robinson, 73, straw owner of FnH Wealth in Ripley, allegedly opened accounts at Valliance Bank, which has branches in Oklahoma and Texas, as well as Prism Bank, a 117-year-old bank in Oklahoma. Both banks have cannabis banking programs. Hui Li, 38, manager of Eagle Budz in Edmond, also fraudulently created an account at Valliance Bank, according to the complaint.
Prism Bank Chief Operating Officer Steve Shear told CRB Monitor News that the bank maintains a robust Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance program.
“In this instance, our internal systems successfully identified activity that did not align with our risk standards. Consistent with these protocols, our team acted promptly to terminate the account and report the activity through the appropriate channels well before this investigation was made public,” Shear said. “The account activity was brief in duration and limited in scope.”
He added that Prism Bank is committed to working with law enforcement and regulatory agencies “to uphold the integrity of the financial system” by operating in strict accordance with all state and federal laws.
The fourth bank identified in the complaint was BancFirst in Oklahoma City, which claims to be Oklahoma’s largest state-chartered bank with $12.1 billion in assets. The complaint says straw owner Michelle Ann Robinson, 52, used her BancFirst account to make tax payments on behalf of FnH Wealth.
The China connection with cannabis
The federal Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has spoken to Congress and warned financial institutions about Chinese money-laundering networks used by Mexican drug cartels.
The DEA was one of the agencies that participated in Operation Blunt Force.
“Over the past few weeks, the DEA New York’s Trident Group conducted an operation with the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office and our law enforcement partners, which targeted and dismantled a large-scale illicit marijuana grow trafficking operation which is tied to an international money-laundering network. These criminal organizations were not only flooding our communities with illicit drugs, but also using financial schemes to hide and move their illegal profits,” stated DEA New York Enforcement Division Special Agent in Charge Farhana Islam, in Drummond’s press release.
A reporter asked at the press conference whether Drummond would comment on allegations that there has been at least one overseas Chinese police station in Oklahoma City.
Without mentioning this case specifically, Drummond responded that in “some of these arrests and busts” there has been evidence, such as uniforms and badges, of Chinese law enforcement involvement.
He said that it’s speculation at this point, but, “it appears as though the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] has embedded law enforcement into their organizations, principally to enforce their organizations.”
For years, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has called attention to Chinese syndicated crime organizations operating in her state.
As chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, she secured funding into the 2026 National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, which was signed into law Feb. 3, to combat illegal, Chinese-linked drug operations.
“PRC-linked criminal syndicates continue to expand their illegal marijuana grow operations in Maine while contributing to the flow of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals that threaten communities in our state and across the country,” Collins said in a statement.
The legislation requires the Secretary of State to submit a report to the appropriate congressional committees regarding Chinese-linked criminal syndicates or nationals who may be involved in illegal money laundering operations in the U.S., including Maine, California and Oregon.
Governor wants to criminalize cannabis again in Oklahoma
Meanwhile, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt reportedly wants to shut down Oklahoma’s nearly eight-year-old medical cannabis law.
Drummond, at the press conference, said he would “love” for cannabis to be gone.
“There’s unanimity among law enforcement, if we didn’t have marijuana at all, it would be better for the state,” he said.
Drummond added, however, that if the future governor went through with Stitt’s plan, “then we would need to reimburse these individuals because it would effectively be a taking.”
