Steve Robinson, the Editor-in-Chief of The Maine Wire, discussed his new documentary called High Crimes: The Chinese Mafia’s Takeover of Rural America which exposes how a Chinese-backed secret drug empire is taking over small towns across America during an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy on Wednesday.
Robinson detailed how he and his team at The Maine Wire spent over 600 days investigating “transnational criminal organizations” – specifically, the Chinese mafia’s presence in Maine – where they uncovered hundreds of illegal marijuana grow operations tied to these groups, far beyond the 270 sites originally cited in a leaked U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo.
“For the last, I would say, 600 days, we’ve been working on an investigation of what can be best described as transnational criminal organizations operating here in the state of Maine, specifically the Chinese Mafia. This all began for me really, with the release of a Department of Homeland Security memo that was originally published by a immigration reporter…The memo said, effectively, that the Chinese mafia is operating thousands of black market cannabis sites across the United States, and they use the fruit of these sites to finance other activities like human trafficking, sex trafficking, narcotics trafficking,” Robinson explained on Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“One of the things that caught my eye in the memo was that 270 of these sites, according to the Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection, were located in Maine, which is my home state,” he added.
Robinson noted how Maine’s relatively small population, rural nature, and economic stagnation makes the state an ideal hiding place for cannabis operations, explaining how many properties were purchased with cash by individuals of “Asian descent” and repurposed for illicit cannabis cultivation.
“Our biggest manufacturing sector right now is cannabis…The state is very rural and an excellent place to hide if you are a criminal organization looking to grow a huge amount of illegal cannabis and then traffic it out of the state,” he said. “I would say there are between 300 and 400 different properties throughout the state of Maine. Not all of them grow. Some of them are boarding houses and flop houses. Some of them are warehouses.”
Robinson went on to call the organized criminal operation an “infestation” in Maine before noting how the subject has received very little attention by Maine politicians and media.
Our friend @BigSteve207 Robinson at @TheMaineWire is blowing the whistle on the Chinese mafia running 300+ illegal pot farms, funding fentanyl & human trafficking. Exposed by the new @TCNetwork doc “High Crimes” – this is a shocking story happening all across rural America. pic.twitter.com/zcau4kfJ10
— MichaelPatrick Leahy (@michaelpleahy) July 3, 2025
“I would call it an infestation, a proliferation, a total secret sub society existing beneath civilized, polite society that very few people knew about until we started shining a spotlight on it. It has had an indisputably pernicious effect on the quality of life here in Maine, and it’s gone totally ignored by basically every politician in the state of Maine, with the exception of Senator Susan Collins,” he said.
“The governor has not uttered a single word about this, not a single word…There is a vast criminal conspiracy that has proliferated throughout Maine entirely on her watch, and she has not acknowledged it, not once. Not after repeated questioning, not after legislative initiatives being brought forward. We approached her in public and asked her to comment about it, and the best she could offer was, ‘That’s not what we’re talking about here today.’ That’s it,” he added.
With regard to U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), Robinson said the senator was one of the first to flag the issue publicly, even before The Maine Wire’s investigation, and has actively engaged with Robinson, sat for interviews, and has been outspoken about the influence of the Chinese Communist Party and its connection to these operations.
“She gave me a 45 minute sit down interview on the topic, no holds barred, talking about the influence of the Chinese Communist Party in Maine and the Chinese marijuana problem. You would’ve thought that I was sitting across the table from Steve Bannon. I know people have a lot of criticism about Senator Collins for her moderation…but when it comes to having a clear-eyed view of the threat that Chinese communism faces to America, she understood what was going on here and she was unabashed about calling this a form of chemical warfare that the Chinese are waging against the United States,” Robinson said.
Robinson further emphasized the problem is not just in Maine but has spread to states like Oklahoma, California, Washington, Tennessee, and Massachusetts, warning that other states are vulnerable and that Americans across the country may unknowingly be consuming unsafe, pesticide-laced marijuana from these illegal operations.
“What we quickly learned was that this problem…could very well be any town in America,” Robinson said.
Robinson’s High Crimes: The Chinese Mafia’s Takeover of Rural America is streaming now on the Tucker Carlson Network.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
