Oklahoma Overrun With Chinese-Operated Marijuana Farms

 by Nicolas Zifcak via The Epoch Times,

Chinese gangs are taking advantage of loose marijuana rules in Oklahoma to grow and transport marijuana to other states for sale on the black market, authorities say.

Oklahoma narcotics officials told Congress $153 billion worth of marijuana is unaccounted for and likely leaving the state for the black market in other states.

As many as 85 percent of licensed grow sites have connections with Chinese owners or operators, according to Mark Woodward, information officer with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics.

Since 2022, the state has shut down more than 6,000 illegal growing operations. Most U.S. states have made marijuana legally available, but taxes and regulations have pushed up its price, leaving an opening for black market sales.

Donnie Anderson, director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, said at a press conference in March 2025 that his department was conducting raids on illegal marijuana operations every day.

Here’s what we know about the ongoing crisis.

Black Market Operations Flourish

Oklahoma approved medical marijuana in 2018, licensing its cultivation and sale within the state. The state then reported an explosive growth of growers as the law established no cap on the number of farms that could be licensed to grow marijuana and no limit on how many marijuana plants each farm could cultivate.

The majority of these sites are run by Chinese nationals, according to the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics.

By the end of 2022, Oklahoma had 8,400 farms licensed for growing marijuana. The state stopped issuing new licenses in 2022. As of mid-2025, there are under 2,000 licensed farms, which is still more than enough to meet the needs of the 325,000 patients licensed to use marijuana for medical purposes.

As the state has increased the reporting required of the licensed growers, it has come to light that an enormous amount of marijuana is not accounted for.

Between March 2024 and March 2025, medical marijuana dispensaries sold 1.7 million pounds of marijuana in Oklahoma, according to Anderson, director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics. But farms licensed to grow marijuana reported growing 87 million plants of marijuana, with a typical yield of one pound per plant.

Anderson told Congress on Sept. 18, 2025, that the marijuana produced by 85 million plants is unaccounted for. That amount is worth around $153 billion, according to state estimates. It is unknown where all the unaccounted product went.

Locals Recruited as Straw Owners

The Oklahoma law, passed in 2018, prohibits marijuana grown in the state from being transported to other states.

Enforcing that law is a challenge. Oklahoma is at the intersection of North-South and East-West interstate highways. In addition, to obtain a license, growers must have two years of residency in the state. Anderson told Congress that some out-of-state operators paid local “straw owners” to fraudulently obtain an Oklahoma license.

These operations are growing marijuana in Oklahoma and transporting the drug to other states for sale. And in one case, one Oklahoma man was registered as owning 300 farms, said Anderson.

The vast majority of these grow sites have a Chinese connection. According to Woodward, currently there are 1,995 active farms in the state, and 85 percent are Chinese-operated or owned.

Several recent convictions of Chinese operators in Oklahoma show the connection between Oklahoma marijuana cultivation and East Coast Chinese criminal organizations.

One case from December 2024 involved Jeff Weng and Tong Lin, who were convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Weng operated out of Brooklyn, New York, while Tong Lin oversaw the grow operation in Wetumka, Oklahoma. According to witness testimony, they transported more than 56,000 pounds of marijuana out of Oklahoma over seven months.

Rising Crime and China Connection

Along with Chinese gangs operating in the state has come an increase in money laundering, illegal gambling, human trafficking, sex trafficking, as well as theft of water and electricity, according to authorities.

Anderson testified to Congress about the rise in crime, specifically the murder of four Chinese nationals in 2022 at an illegal marijuana farm. More murders took place in 2024 and 2025 at marijuana grow sites.

Local officials are concerned about not only the harm to communities, but also the involvement of an unfriendly foreign power. In his testimony in Congress, Anderson highlighted the threat to national security, noting that many grow sites are located near critical infrastructure, including military bases such as the McAlester ammunition facility, which serves as a national stockpile.

In their investigations, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics has documented transfers to the Bank of China as well as connections to Chinese regime-owned businesses.

Anderson said the state can’t solve this problem by arresting bad actors. He is looking for state and federal officials to take action.

Currently, Oklahoma has 325,000 patients with a medical need for marijuana. Anderson is calling for the state to right-size the production of marijuana to match the need.

https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/oklahoma-overrun-chinese-operated-marijuana-farms

Trump says Michigan church shooting appears to be ‘targeted attack on Christians’

 President Trump said the deadly shooting at a Mormon church in Michigan on Sunday appears to be a “targeted attack on Christians” after authorities say a man crashed his car into the church and set fire to the building.

Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform that he’s been briefed on the shooting at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, Mich., about 60 miles northwest of Detroit. The president called for an end to the “epidemic of violence” in the United States.

“I have been briefed on the horrendous shooting that took place at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Grand Blanc, Michigan. The FBI was immediately on scene, and will be leading the Federal Investigation, and providing full support to State and Local Officials. The suspect is dead, but there is still a lot to learn,” Trump wrote.

“This appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America,” he continued. “The Trump Administration will keep the Public posted, as we always do. In the meantime, PRAY for the victims, and their families.”

“THIS EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE IN OUR COUNTRY MUST END, IMMEDIATELY!” he added.

Authorities said one person was dead and 10 others were injured after the suspect drove through the front doors of the church and then began shooting before setting fire to the building. Police said the building was “actively on fire” into the late morning.

The suspect was declared dead after an exchange of gunfire with authorities, the local police chief said during a press conference Sunday afternoon.

Multiple members of Congress who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints condemned the violence while offering prayers for the victims and their families.

“@POTUS is right: Christianity is under attack in the United States,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) posted on the social platform X.

“These cowardly and senseless acts of violence have no place in our society,” wrote Rep. Mike Kennedy (R-Utah).

The shooting came as Mormons mourned the death of Russell Nelson, the oldest-serving president of the church, who died Saturday at the age of 101.

“As Latter-day Saints mourn the passing of our beloved Prophet, we are also shocked by violence in one of our meetinghouses. President Nelson called on us to be peacemakers—and that’s exactly what we need right now. I pray we can pull together and be our best, most compassionate selves,” Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-Utah) posted on X.

“We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of prayers and concern from so many people around the world. In moments of sorrow and uncertainty, we find strength and comfort through our faith in Jesus Christ,” the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints posted on X. “Places of worship are meant to be sanctuaries of peacemaking, prayer and connection. We pray for peace and healing for all involved.”

The attack comes amid a number of high-profile shootings in recent weeks that have captured the public’s attention, including a Minnesota Catholic school shooting that unfolded as children gathered for their first morning mass of the school year. The FBI is investigating that incident as a hate crime targeting Catholics.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5526130-deadly-michigan-church-shooting/

'Cuomo warns of ‘destructive extremist forces’ after Adams exits New York City mayor’s race'

 New York City mayoral candidate and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a plea to defeat “destructive extremist forces” after Mayor Eric Adams ended his reelection bid, a move that could help Cuomo narrow the gap with Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.

“The choice @ericadamsfornyc made today was not an easy one, but I believe he is sincere in putting the well-being of New York City ahead of personal ambition,” Cuomo said in a post on the social platform X on Sunday. 

“We face destructive extremist forces that would devastate our city through incompetence or ignorance, but it is not too late to stop them,” he added. “Mayor Adams has much to be proud of in his accomplishments. Only in New York can a child raised in a tenement in Bushwick, who once worked as a squeegee boy and a mailroom clerk, rise to become mayor.”

Adams’s decision to end his reelection bid sets up a three-way race between Mamdani, Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

Mamdani, a democratic socialist who serves in the New York State Assembly, has held a major lead in polls of the mayor’s race after defeating Cuomo in the Democratic primary in June. Cuomo is now running as an independent.

Mamdani in a statement on Sunday painted President Trump and his “billionaire donors” as attempting to push Adams to end his bid to bolster Cuomo.

“New York deserves better than trading in one disgraced, corrupt politician for another. On November 4th, we are going to turn the page on the politics of big money and small ideas and deliver a government every New Yorker can be proud of,” Mamdani said.

Speculation swirled earlier this year following multiple reports that members of the Trump administration were weighing a position for Adams in an effort to get him out of the race to set up a match-up between Cuomo and Mamdani.

Meanwhile, Sliwa indicated he plans to stay in the race, writing in a post on X that he is “the only candidate who can defeat Mamdani.”

“Our team, our resources, and our supporters are unmatched. Most importantly, we have the best solutions to help working people afford to stay in New York City and feel safe,” he added.

That could continue to splinter the vote of those who oppose Mamdani.

A Suffolk University CityView poll released last week found Sliwa drawing 9 percent support, ahead of Adams’s 8 percent. Cuomo drew 25 percent, while Mamdani led with 45 percent.

Adams, via a video posted Sunday on X, announced his exit from the race while touting his in-office accomplishments.

“Whoever follows me at City Hall must continue the work we started: lowering the cost of living, investing in quality of life, and staying laser-focused on reducing crime and disorder through investments in policing, mental health, substance abuse care, homelessness services and community-based initiatives,” he said.

The Hill has reached out to Mamdani’s campaign for further comment.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5526188-cuomo-warns-of-destructive-extremist-forces-after-adams-exits-nyc-mayors-race/

Missouri governor signs new GOP-favored map

 Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe (R) signed the state’s new congressional map into law, setting the GOP up to gain one additional seat in the House in next year’s elections.

“I was proud to officially sign the Missouri First Map into law today ahead of the 2026 midterm election,” Kehoe said in a statement on Sunday. “Missourians are more alike than we are different, and our values, across both sides of the aisle, are closer to each other than those of the congressional representation of states like New York, California, and Illinois. We believe this map best represents Missourians, and I appreciate the support and efforts of state legislators, our congressional delegation, and President Trump in getting this map to my desk.”

Kehoe signed it after the measure comfortably passed in both houses of the state Legislature, along mostly party-line votes, though some Republicans in the state House broke with their party to vote against it. The law redraws the lines of Missouri’s congressional map ahead of the midterms to likely increase the number of Republicans representing the state in the U.S. House to seven and reduce the number of Democrats to one.

The Democrat targeted in the new map is Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), who has represented the Kansas City area for two decades. But the map splits the urban center into three districts and adds additional rural territory to Cleaver’s district to make it much more conservative.

Democrats have denounced the move as a power grab designed to enact President Trump’s will, but they were powerless to stop it with minorities in the state House and Senate. But opponents of the new map are likely to pursue a legal challenge, as they have argued it violates the Voting Rights Act.

And they also could have another avenue through state law that allows them to try to gather signatures to put the map on the ballot for the voters to decide whether it should go into effect.

Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin said Kehoe and Missouri Republicans have shown they care more about holding onto power than the “fundamental rights” of Missourians.

“This is a right-wing power grab so Republicans can avoid accountability for voting to take away the health care of hundreds of thousands of Missourians. But the battle in Missouri isn’t over,” Martin said. “Missourians have the opportunity to put this craven power grab up for a vote. The DNC supports Missouri organizers collecting ballot signatures to take democracy back into their own hands and defeat these rigged maps once and for all.”

Republicans’ move in Missouri comes amid the national redistricting battle that began when the Texas GOP approved a map that could net the party up to five additional seats in the midterms. California lawmakers responded with approving a ballot measure for voters in November to allow them to redraw their state’s map and possibly give Democrats up to five additional seats to neutralize the gains made in Texas.

But Republicans have more pathways to try to pick up seats through mid-decade redistricting in states like Missouri. Other Republican-led states like Ohio and Florida may look to add seats, while Democrats’ opportunities are limited to possibly states like Maryland.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5500453-missouri-redistricting-gop-gains/

China Pivots To Brazil, Squeezing U.S. Farmers As Trump Plans Relief Fund

 President Trump announced plans last week to use tariff revenue as a financial cushion for struggling American farmers as China shuns U.S. agricultural goods. Beijing's pivot to Brazilian ag suppliers has left Midwest farmers in the nation's top ag belts fearing a spiral into financial hardship.

At the White House on Thursday, President Trump told reporters, "We're going to take some of that tariff money that we've made, we're going to give it to our farmers, who are - for a little while - going to be hurt until it kicks in, the tariffs kick in to their benefit." 

Trump later told reporters that he has not decided on a final version of the plan and would consult with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on the matter. 

China's abrupt pivot to Brazil, after decades of purchasing more than half of the U.S.'s soybeans annually, highlights elevated trade tensions this year as both superpowers attempt to find common ground on a new deal. 

Financial Times noted, "For decades, more than half of all U.S. soybeans went to China, the world's biggest buyer. But this year, as trade talks between Washington and Beijing stall, not a single American soybean has headed east, leaving farmers struggling to stay afloat as bins fill and prices sag while China turns to record supplies from Brazil." 

Source: Financial Times 

U.S. farmers across the Midwest's ag belts largely voted for Trump in 2024 and in other previous elections. The problem for the administration is that export markets for some crops are quickly drying up amid this year's trade war with China and other countries. This has created a potential political vulnerability for the "America First" party ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, prompting the administration to consider using tariff revenue to mitigate the financial impact on U.S. farmers.

Rollins recently announced a $10 billion, four-year commitment from Taiwan to offset some of the losses incurred from China. She called this a "game-changer for our farmers & ranchers. America's producers are BACK on offense & leading the world again!" 

🚨 BREAKING TRADE WIN: Taiwan just committed to $10 BILLION in US agriculture buys over the next 4 years, including soybeans, corn, wheat & beef. 🌾🥩

That’s a game-changer for our farmers & ranchers. America’s producers are BACK on offense & leading the world again! 🇺🇸💪

— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) September 19, 2025

The rejiggering of global supply chains to align with "America First" policies has meant more government planning and less voluntary action in the marketplace. Perhaps this will change.

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/china-pivots-brazil-squeezing-us-farmers-trump-plans-relief-fund

Why is Apple hosting an assassin’s app?

 ICEBlock is an app that uses real-time information to pinpoint the location of ICE agents in the field. Launched in April in response to Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, it now boasts more than one million users across the country.

Among them, until recently, was self-styled “anti-fascist” sniper Joshua Jahn, who killed one person – a detainee – and critically injured two more at an ICE facility in Dallas. The FBI has discovered that Jahn used the app, or one like it, to track his intended victims. In a handwritten note, Jahn, who took his own life, wrote, “Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror.”

ICEBlock claims that its purpose is to help illegal immigrants evade arrest by alerting them to the presence of ICE agents. But its far more wicked use as an assassin’s tool has for a long time been all too easy to predict with the left’s prolific and incendiary rhetoric around “Nazis” and “fascists,” the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the new record-high of left-wing terror attacks.

And it is almost inevitable that another targeted attack based on data from the app will happen again.

That’s because Apple is still hosting ICEBlock and apps like it on its App Store. The big tech platform that notoriously removed the conservative social media app Parler for far more nebulous claims of harm after Jan. 6. seems perfectly content to aid future would-be assassins. Apparently, Big Tech is more worried about censoring conservative grannies for wrongthink than it is actual real world violence.

ICEBlock was developed by Joshua Aaron, a tech bro and former indie musician from Texas. It allows activists to drop a pin on a map wherever they spot ICE agents, which then sends a notification to all other users in a five mile radius.

“We don’t want anything being discoverable,” Aaron said in a gushing profile for CNN earlier this year. “And so, this is 100 percent anonymous and free for anybody who wants to use it.”

Of course, ICEBlock would never explicitly incite violence, it would like you to know. Upon log-in, a legal disclaimer states, “Please note that the use of this app is for information and notification purposes only.”

Aaron says he’s the good guy, someone who wants to “fight back” against the rising tide of Nazism in America. He only cares about “keeping people safe,” he told The Guardian in another fawning interview.

And playing the victim in an interview with USA Today, he claimed it was “insanity” to link his app with the Texas shooting and that the DOJ was merely “trying to bully [him].” Indeed, he has seemed much more concerned that his wife was let go from her job as a forensic auditor at the Department of Justice because of her ties to the app.

Most tech founders would sell their first-born to mirror ICEBlock’s growth: it boasted just 20,000 users in June, but as of September Aaron says there are 1.1 million active users across the country – all of whom seem perfectly happy to help would-be assassins find their next victim.

The app has come under fire from both ICE agents on the ground as well high-ranking Trump officials for putting a very real target on agents’ backs.

“The DOJ’s looking at it, and they need to throw some people in jail,” Border Czar Tom Homan said of ICEBlock over the summer.

But little if anything beyond some angry letters and statements has so far been done.

With the implicit endorsement of mainstream media and big tech, ICEBlock has enjoyed a stamp of institutional legitimacy along with all the impunity that affords. But the days of normalizing leftist agitators with a wink and a nod are over.

Aaron can cry peaceful resistance as much as he wants, but violent attacks against ICE agents become inevitable in a climate where they’re deemed Nazis and any lunatic is free to track their real-time movements. Denying this reality beggars belief; anyone who does so is stupid, or more likely, lying, and indifferent to violence against agents.

Attorney General Pam Bondi warned Aaron to “watch out” in July, but it’s time for her office to initiate a real crackdown. Whether through cultural or government pressure, Apple must no longer allow apps like ICEBlock to proliferate, and the full force of the federal government must be used to scrutinize Aaron’s activities. Or these attacks are only going to keep happening.

This isn’t a matter of free speech, but a matter of very real harm as we saw in Texas.

Yet it’s an even deeper question of what kind of country we want to live in: one where ICE agents are seen as brownshirts for enforcing basic U.S. law, or one where law, order, and common sense receive the unanimous respect necessary for a functioning nation?

We can’t have a country without borders. Those who claim otherwise have enjoyed more than enough time dominating the Overton window, and deserve to go back to the fringe.

Gage Klipper is a writer based in New York. Previously, he was the culture critic at the Daily Caller and an editor at Pirate Wires.

https://thespectator.com/topic/why-is-apple-hosting-an-assassins-app/

Left-Wing Terrorism Has Been Unleashed

 For years, we were told by government officials and outside “experts” that the terrorists in our midst were mostly right-wing fanatics – a list that under the Biden administration came to include parents who spoke up at local school board meetings and Catholics who like the Latin mass.

But even the left is now admitting what everyone else already knows.

Namely, that despite their constant bleating about tolerance and peace, it’s leftists who pose the greatest threat to Americans.

This week, the Trump-hating Atlantic magazine published an article titled “Left-Wing Terrorism Is on the Rise,” written by scholars at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

“We found that left-wing terrorism has increased since President Donald Trump’s rise to political prominence in 2016. Indeed, 2025 marks the first time in more than 30 years that left-wing attacks outnumber those from the far right.”

By early July, “far-left extremists had already been responsible for five terrorist attacks and plots, putting 2025 on pace to be the left’s most violent year in more than three decades.”

And their list doesn’t include the killer who slaughtered two children in a Minneapolis church, the gunman who shot up ABC10 in Sacramento, the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the killing in a New Hampshire restaurant by a gunman who shouted “free Palestine,” or the attempted assassination of ICE agents in Dallas by a shooter who engraved bullet casings with “Anti-ICE” (but who ended up killing an illegal immigrant). All of these political attacks were committed by leftists — in just the past month.

It’s likely even worse and much more lopsided than that.

We don’t know what the CSIS authors are counting as “left wing” or “right wing” terrorist attacks, but our guess is that – based on other such assessments – they have downplayed the former and exaggerated the latter. Does CSIS include the 2020 BLM riots or the pro-Hamas campus sieges or the multitude of Antifa attacks as left-wing terrorism?

A widely cited report from the Anti-Defamation League claimed that three-quarters of “extremist” killings from 2015 to 2024 were carried out by right-wingers. But a closer look found that the ADL stretched the meaning of “right wing” to the point of absurdity to increase those numbers, while ignoring some even obvious left-wing killings – such as the assassination of the UnitedHealthcare CEO by an overtly leftist (alleged) attacker.

A recent paper published by the libertarian Cato Institute made the same mistake. For example, the Cato paper counts Peyton Gendron, who murdered 10 people in a Buffalo supermarket and whose manifesto described himself as an “eco-fascist national socialist,” as “right-wing.”

The Cato report also “omitted genuine left-wing killers from his list entirely, including the Waukesha Christmas parade attacker who drove his truck through a crowd in 2021, killing six people,” notes PJ Media. And it failed to count any of the Black Lives Matter violence of the 2020s as “left wing.”

Yet, even with these caveats, the CSIS report found a sharp rise in left-wing terrorist attacks — which should come as no surprise to anyone.

For years, we’ve been pointing out polls that show that those on the left are far more likely to say violence is an acceptable form of political expression. (See, for example, “ Will Left’s Violent Tendencies Lead To U.S. Breakup Or Dictatorship?” March 16, 2021, or “Left-Wing Rage: Don’t Pretend It Doesn’t Exist,” Aug. 18, 2023.)

For most of the past decade, Democrats, the mainstream media, and academia have provided a steady stream of strident and increasingly radicalized language to describe Republicans and conservatives. A new report from the Capital Research Center finds that George Soros’ Open Society Foundations funneled more than $80 million to groups “tied to terrorism or extremist violence.”

They called Trump a fascist. They called Charlie Kirk a fascist. They called ICE officials fascists. Heck, they called anyone they disagreed with a fascist. Over and over and over and over again. Worse, they actively encouraged attacks and celebrated assassins.

How hard is it to believe that all this talk is motivating their fellow leftists to take direct and violent action? These days, it’s not hard at all.

How likely is it that they will admit their culpability and tone down their rhetoric? What’s a snowball’s chance in Hell?

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/09/26/left-wing-terrorism-has-been-unleashed/