The Maine Wire reports
Versant Power says the illegal aliens running the Machias marijuana grow were stealing electricity.
When the Machias Police executed a search warrant at 414 East Kennebec Road in December, they suspected they find an illegal marijuana cultivation site operated by out-of-state criminals.
But the scale — and sophistication — of the operation they uncovered left them gobsmacked.
“We found three Asian males in the barn that were actively tending the grow. Three buildings and the main house… all contained pretty substantial grows inside,” said Machias Police Chief Keith Mercier.
The Machias police confiscated 2,607 live marijuana plants that were being grown across nine different rooms on the property, including in two large barns.
“We did ID all three. Two had Malaysian passports and the third had a New York Driver’s License,” said Mercier, adding that the third man also had a passport from the People’s Republic of China.
The property — once a beautiful salt water farm with views of the East Branch of Little Kennebec Bay — sits on 37.9 acres and is valued, according to RedFin, at nearly $600,000. It has been abandoned by its current owners following the arrests of Ming Li, 52, Dong Yang Li, 60, and Peng You Phang, 61.
Cops also found the wallet of an Asian woman not present at the time of the arrest, along with a plane ticket showing a recent arrival from Beijing.
[RELATED: Maine Law Enforcement Raids Machias Marijuana Grow, Arrests Three Suspected Non-Citizens…]
Li, Li, and Phang were all charged with felonies related to illegally growing a trafficking marijuana.
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