Agents uncover OKC brothel serving marijuana farm owners: 1 arrested, 1 still at large
The anonymous tip about the pink one-story house in northwest Oklahoma City came into the state's human trafficking hotline a year ago.
The caller reported several vehicles had stopped there. Many had out-of-state license plates.
What a four-month investigation found was that the house had become a brothel for managers and administrators at medical marijuana farms across Oklahoma, the state's narcotics bureau alleges. Between last October and February, a dozen women were trafficked there.
On Tuesday, police in New York City arrested Feng Jiang, who is accused of being the boss of the operation that flew women in to serve as prostitutes.
The arrest came a month after the Oklahoma multicounty grand jury returned an indictment charging Jiang, 43, with human trafficking. That indictment was made public Wednesday.
The grand jury also returned a second human trafficking indictment in September against Jian Lin. He is accused of taking women from the Oklahoma City airport to the brothel and getting them groceries and condoms. Lin, 31, was still being sought Wednesday.
"Human trafficking is a nefarious crime that preys on the vulnerable," Donnie Anderson, the director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control, said in a news release about the indictments.
Agents raid OKC brothel in human trafficking case
After the tip, narcotics agents conducted surveillance of the house, installed a pole camera and did trash pulls, court records show. One agent estimated that in four months "well over 100 vehicles/persons have visited the ... address with most staying less than an hour."
Found in the trash pulls were "dozens of used condoms," the agent reported.
Agents raided the brothel, Lin's apartment and other locations Feb. 23. Lin was arrested at the time on a drug complaint but released the next day after posting a $10,000 bond.
Agents reported finding the drug ketamine in Lin's apartment, $44,342 in his bedroom and $5,197 in his vehicle.
Jiang was not arrested in February. The narcotics bureau alleges he has continued to traffic women in Oklahoma, while residing in New York, as recently as this month.
The Oklahoman could not determine if Jiang has hired an attorney yet who could comment for him.
Advising the state grand jury are assistants of Attorney General Gentner Drummond.
“Illegal marijuana grows are responsible for an alarming influx of organized crime into our communities, particularly from Mexican drug cartels and Chinese crime syndicates” Drummond said in September. “I have made it a priority to wipe out these illicit operators."
Tips on illegal grow operations can be made anonymously to the attorney general's office at oag.ok.gov by clicking on the “Illegal Marijuana Tipline” tab. Tips also can be sent to illegalgrow@oag.ok.gov.
The multicounty grand jury in September also returned three drug trafficking indictments after investigations by the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority.
Grand jurors alleged illegal marijuana operations were being conducted at Green Panda Cultivation Inc. in McAlester, Zhchen Farm LLC in Calumet, International Growing Company LLC in Maud and Mr. Releaf LLC in Tecumseh.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: One arrested in human trafficking scheme tied to Oklahoma pot farms
