Oklahoma’s Secret War: OBN Director Reveals Growing Threat Of Illegal Marijuana Farms

We’re taking a look at what Oklahoma’s top drug enforcement officer says are the biggest drug issues in our state.

News On 6’s Lori Fullbright sat down with the director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, Donnie Anderson. He says meth still kills more people in Oklahoma than any other drug, but fentanyl is catching up fast. However, he says the number one issue is illegal marijuana farms, mostly operated by organized crime groups from places like Bulgaria, Russia, and primarily China.

He says Chinese criminals launder money for the cartels and provide the chemicals to make the drugs. Anderson says these transnational criminal organizations have assassinated people in Oklahoma and have trafficked children for sex.

He believes Oklahomans have been kept in the dark for too long.

Donnie Anderson became director of OBN four years ago and quickly realized the numbers weren’t adding up. Oklahoma's marijuana law says the pot grown here must stay here and can't be sold outside the state. Oklahoma has 4 million citizens and about 300,000 of them have a medical marijuana card. Yet at the time, the state had nearly 10,000 marijuana farms. By comparison, California, with a population of 40 million, had 2,500 farms.

Anderson says it became obvious organized crime from other countries had moved in and were growing illegally in Oklahoma and supplying the East Coast, Texas, and many other places with weed. He says it's a billion-dollar industry, filled with violence and corruption, and most of those criminals are Chinese nationals.

He says make no mistake: the Chinese government is fully aware.

"They're very much aware of what's going on in the U.S. with Chinese nationals. There are people in Oklahoma who have direct ties to the Chinese government. I know people don't like to hear that, and people don't even like me talking about it, but it is a fact, and our people need to know that," said Anderson.

Anderson says these are the same criminals tied to espionage, terrorist attacks, and sex trafficking of children. He says that's not speculation but based on the intelligence they gather in their investigations.

"It's so much more than just drugs. This is a communist country. I'm telling you, they have a stranglehold on us, and they know what's going on, and we're letting it happen," he said.

Anderson hired Mandarin-speaking agents and created marijuana enforcement teams and started going after the illegal operations. He says he's not against marijuana, but he is against marijuana that breaks the law; as long as the laws are on the books, his agents will enforce them.

"There's legitimate people in this business, and they're good people, and they're hurting more than anybody. We really got to take a look at, don't try to overcompensate getting the bad people out to where we choke the good guys out, or we'll have no one but bad people."

He says people like to say the state is getting tons of tax money from marijuana, but he says the vast majority of what's grown in Oklahoma is sold out of state, and there is no tax money with black market sales.

He compares Oklahoma to Arkansas, which has more than 3 million residents.

Donnie Anderson: The state of Arkansas has eight marijuana grows.

Lori: Eight.

Donnie: Eight, and they have a surplus of marijuana, yes. When I came here, we had almost 10,000. We're down below 3,000 right now, and I think this year you'll see us go down around a thousand or under, but still—eight.

He says drugs are not a victimless crime; that since the opioid epidemic began in the mid-'90s, more than 1 million people have died in the U.S. He says people in Oklahoma are more likely to die from a drug overdose than from a gun or in a car crash. Most who die from a drug overdose, he says, had a mental health issue. As Oklahoma offers more mental health treatment and breaks the stigma of addiction, he hopes the overdose numbers will decrease.

Anderson says the good news is his teams are making progress.

"We're not done yet. I do see light at the end of the tunnel, but we're not done," he said.

When he first started these marijuana enforcement teams, he says no agencies wanted to help, except county sheriffs and some county commissioners. But now, with all the success, he gets calls weekly from other states, asking for advice and training.