Steve Robinson

Who knows where the lab is, but...

Senator Markwayne Mullen recently gave a press conference and I know he's had some personal experience with

losing someone he loves to overdose, to opioid overdose, opioid addiction, and talked about this.

And he estimated, based on information he had received, that this is already a $9 billion industry.

Wow.

Just 7-OH.

$9 billion.

You remember the face gnawing.

Law enforcement sources that we've communicated with time and again have drawn direct bright lines between the organized crime activities in Maine, in New York, California, Oklahoma, straight to the Chinese government.

That's not satisfactory for me, that some law enforcement or government source says, oh, this is connected to the CCP.

What I prefer to rely on is my own reporting and things that I've uncovered and things that I've worked with other journalists to uncover.

And to give you a specific example, I grew up in a town called Dexter.

It's right in the center of the state of Maine, used to be home to Dexter Shoes.

And at a property that is maybe a five minute walk from my childhood home,

This property was purchased by some Chinese individuals from the Flushing, New York area around 2021 and converted into a drug house, a marijuana house.

And we, as part of our investigation into the Chinese drug cartel activity in Maine,

had identified as many of these properties as we possibly could, and then began driving all around the state, visiting them, trying to interview the people who were there, if there were people there, trying to interview the neighbors and learn what we could.

While we were visiting this particular site on Highland Avenue,

We found there were two abandoned vehicles there.

One was an abandoned Ford Express van that looked like it had been converted to carry either the maximum number of laborers or maybe the maximum number of trash bags full of cannabis.