BOSTON — Seven Chinese nationals living in Massachusetts are accused of smuggling foreign nationals in the United States to work in a multi-million drug ring hidden inside suburban homes across New England.
Six of the accused, with the alleged ring leader living in Braintree and others in Weymouth, Melrose, and Quincy, were arrested Tuesday morning, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement.
One of them, Yanrong Zhu, 47, of Greenfield, Mass. and Brooklyn, N.Y., remains a fugitive.
The massive scheme involved cultivating and distributing marijuana across the Northeast that used interconnected grow houses concealed inside single-family homes in Massachusetts and Maine, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors allege that Chinese nationals were smuggled into the country to work in these grow houses without access to their passports until they repaid their smuggling debts.
Profits from the marijuana sales, which totaled in the millions of dollars, were used to purchase luxury homes, automobiles, jewelry and other items in Massachusetts including to expand the enterprise through the purchase of real estate, prosecutors said.
“This case pulls back the curtain on a sprawling criminal enterprise that exploited our immigration system and our communities for personal gain,” Foley said.
“These defendants allegedly turned quiet homes across the Northeast into hubs for a criminal enterprise – building a multi-million-dollar black-market operation off the backs of an illegal workforce and using our neighborhoods as cover. That ends today,” Foley said.
The following people were indicted on conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuana, and some face additional charges as listed:
1. Jianxiong Chen, 39, of Braintree, also indicted on one count of money laundering conspiracy, 11 counts of money laundering and one count of bringing aliens into the United States;
2. Yuxiong Wu, 36, of Weymouth, also indicted on one count of money laundering conspiracy and four counts of money laundering;
3. Dinghui Li, 38, of Braintree, also indicted on one count of money laundering conspiracy and two counts of money laundering;
4. Dechao Ma, 35, of Braintree, also indicted on one count of money laundering conspiracy and two counts of money laundering;
5. Peng Lian Zhu, 35, of Melrose, also indicted on one count of money laundering conspiracy;
6. Hongbin Wu, 35, of Quincy; and
7. Yanrong Zhu, 47, of Greenfield, Mass. and Brooklyn, N.Y.
“Today, we arrested members of an alleged Chinese-run drug trafficking organization who are accused of running a massive marijuana cultivation and distribution scheme that has raked in millions and contributed widely to the illegal drug trade here in the Northeast,” Ted Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston Division, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Equally disturbing is that Jianxiong Chen – the accused ringleader of this organization – is charged with paying to smuggle a Chinese national across the Mexican border to work at his grow houses,“ Docks said.
“This takedown highlights the need for a sustained law enforcement effort, across all levels, to shut down and thoroughly investigate the organized criminal enterprises behind these unlicensed and illegal operations,” Docks said.
According to the charging documents, from about January 2020, the defendants allegedly owned, operated or partnered with a network of interconnected grow houses in Massachusetts and Maine to cultivate and distribute kilogram-sized quantities of marijuana in bulk.
Specifically, grow houses were run in Braintree, Melrose, and Greenfield, among other locations in Massachusetts, Maine and elsewhere, prosecutors allege.
The grow house operators kept in contact with each other through the “East Coast Contact List,” a list of marijuana cultivators and distributors in the region with ties to China, prosecutors said.
Chen controlled several grow houses in Maine as well as a home in Braintree, which served as headquarters for the drug enterprise, prosecutors said.
Marijuana manufactured by the interconnected grow house network, as well as bulk cash from dealers, was allegedly delivered to and redistributed by Chen at this Braintree house.
Co-conspirators hid the marijuana and cash they were delivering to Chen inside the engine compartments of their vehicles, prosecutors said.
During a search of the home in October 2024, more than $270,000 in cash was allegedly recovered from the house and from a Porsche in the driveway, as well as several Chinese passports and other identification documents inside a safe, prosecutors said.
Data from Chen’s cell phone allegedly revealed that he helped smuggle Chinese nationals into the United States – putting the aliens to work at one of the grow houses he controlled while keeping their passports “until they repaid him for the cost associated with smuggling them into the country,” prosecutors said.
In October 2024, additional searches of grow houses in Braintree and Melrose where Ma and Zhu lived, respectively, allegedly resulted in the seizure of over 109 kilograms of marijuana, nearly $200,000 in cash and numerous luxury items including a gold Rolex watch with a $65,000 price tag still on it.
The enterprise conducted bulk cash transactions with operators in the Eastern District of New York.
According to court documents, in June 2023, Hongbin Wu and Yanrong Zhu were stopped by law enforcement after leaving a grow house in Greenfield, during which $36,900 in cash was seized from them.
The charge of conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuana provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, at least two years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
The charge of money laundering conspiracy provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $500,000, or twice the amount involved, whichever is greater.
The charges of money laundering each provide for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $500,000, or twice the amount involved, whichever is greater.
The charge of bringing aliens into the United States provides for a mandatory minimum sentence of three years and up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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