Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, detailed how the largest drug bust in Stewart County, Tennessee from 2023 shares striking similarities to a secret drug empire backed by the Chinese mafia.
Last week, 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.
He explained how hundreds of properties in his home state of Maine have been purchased with cash by individuals of “Asian descent” and repurposed for illicit cannabis cultivation.
Robinson warned that the operation has spread to other states including Tennessee, emphasizing that all states are vulnerable and that Americans across the country may unknowingly be consuming unsafe, pesticide-laced marijuana from the illegal operations backed by the Chinese.
In December 2023, the Stewart County Sheriff’s Office, in coordination with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the 23rd Judicial Task Force, investigated an alleged discovery of more than 2,000 marijuana plants growing in a “very sophisticated environment” at a vacant church in Indian Mound.
Law enforcement said they considered the setup extremely advanced, with a sophisticated hydroponic system and even had concerns about potential booby traps at the site.
The criminal case against Ruian Huang, 56, a Chinese national accused of running the illegal growth operation, has yet to reach trial.
Pappert, on Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, said, “It seems as though Chinese nationals are taking advantage of any state that has rural cheap property” to carry out such illegal marijuana growth operations.
“A lieutenant with the Stewart County Sheriff’s Office…told us that this case bears startling resemblances to what was being reported in Maine from the Maine Wire in that documentary. While he stressed that the case is ongoing, he can’t tell me exactly what details are similar, but we do know from what police said back in 2023 that they had massive amounts of fertilizer and chemicals and stuff that the local sheriff’s office, frankly, didn’t even know how to identify it, it seemed in the press release,” Pappert explained.
“I have a hunch that’s what was going on,” he added.
Once the case against Huang in Tennessee goes to trial, Pappert said it will be interesting to learn of additional similarities, if any, the alleged operation shares with ones discovered in Maine.
“It will also be very interesting to learn if this individual was allegedly stealing electricity, which is apparently one of the commonalities in Maine…We should get to learn a lot more about this case and exactly who might be running this operation, whether it’s the Chinese mafia or the triads as we saw in Maine or a similar organization, hopefully as early as next month,” Pappert said.
Pappert went on to raise concerns about how Huang entered the U.S., and suggested either he’s either being held to face justice before deportation or he has some form of legal status, despite the language barrier of him allegedly only being able to speak Mandarin.
“It’s been reported previously that he came illegally…I was very specific to ask that in my first inquiry to the sheriff’s office and they were clear that no, he has not been deported. So there’s two options that I see. One, he is an illegal immigrant who the local prosecutors here in Tennessee want to make sure faces justice in the United States, or else perhaps he did have some legal status in the country despite not speaking the English language seems hard to believe,” he said.
Watch:
Tune in now to The Michael Patrick Leahy Show – your AMERICA FIRST news talk!
– Watch LIVE here on X
– Watch LIVE on Roku
– Listen on Spotify
– Listen on WENO AM760 in Nashville
– Read more at @TheTNStarhttps://t.co/CWaXYCM2rH— MichaelPatrick Leahy (@michaelpleahy) July 9, 2025
– – –
Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
