Exclusive: Susan Collins Cheers Trump's Crackdown on Chinese Drug, Human Trafficking Cartels

In exclusive comments to the The Robinson Report, the Republican Senator from Maine praised the Department of Justice for moving to indict seven alleged Chinese drug and human traffickers.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (Maine-R) is hailing the feds' bust of a shadowy Chinese drug cartel that leveraged the previously wide-open southern border and Maine’s lax marijuana laws to build an illicit cannabis empire on the backs of exploited illegal alien labor.

“I am thankful the Administration is working to swiftly address the illegal Chinese marijuana grow operations that threaten public health and our national security,” Collins told The Robinson Report.

“The indictment of seven Chinese nationals in connection with these widespread criminal activities, including an individual with ties to multiple grow houses in Maine, marks an important step in the right direction,” Collins said.

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Watch Steve Robinson’s in-depth interview with Tucker Carlson about his years-long investigation into Chinese organized crime in Maine and throughout rural America.

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The bombshell indictment, unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, revealed that the alleged kingpin of the Chinese drug cartel, Jianxiong Chen, facilitated the illegal migration of Chinese nationals over the U.S.-Mexico border and into New England for the purposes of working at illegal marijuana grow houses in Massachusetts and Maine.

The indictment alleges that Chen would steal the illegal aliens' passports and compel them to work off their trafficking debts like indentured cannabis slaves.

Former President Joe Biden’s U.S. Attorney for the District of Maine, Darcie McElwee, had long denied that there was any evidence of human trafficking occurring at illicit pot houses controlled by Chinese organized crime.

But the indictment shows the DOJ was well aware of at least some instances of forced labor occurring in New England as part of a sprawling marijuana empire that includes more than 300 properties in Maine.

Collins has been urging both state and federal law enforcement to crack down on Chinese organized crime in Maine since at least 2022, but state officials, including Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) and Attorney General Aaron Frey (D) have refused to acknowledge the problem, let alone deal with it.

“In June, I questioned Attorney General Pam Bondi on how the Department of Justice is supporting the efforts of state, county, and local law enforcement to combat these illicit marijuana grow operations in Maine and throughout the country,” Collins said.

“I also raised this issue in hearings with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel, as well as with members of the Biden Administration as far back as when these operations were first brought to my attention by concerned constituents in 2022,” she said. “I will continue to support the efforts of law enforcement to shut down these operations and ensure these criminals can no longer operate in Maine or anywhere in our nation.”

In addition to Chen, the bust snagged alleged ringleaders Yuxiong Wu, Dinghui Li, Dechao Ma, Peng Lian Zhu, Hongbin Wu, and Yanrong Zhu.

Prosecutors claim the crew ran a network of underground pot farms in Bay State towns like Braintree, Melrose, and Greenfield.

Feds dubbed it part of "Operation Take Back America," a nationwide blitz on transnational crime syndicates. Raids turned up dirty cash stashed in a Porsche, luxury jewelry, and a safe crammed with passports, according to court docs.

According to the indictment, the Chinese drug cartel bigs were keeping tabs on this reporter, sharing links to investigative reports exposing their Maine hubs over the Chinese app WeChat.

One defendant shared a Maine Wire investigative report via WeChat just days after it dropped.