State Marijuana Legalization Laws Shield Foreign Cartels And Threaten Public Safety, GOP Senator And Former DEA Official Claim

A GOP senator and former top Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official
on Tuesday traded thoughts about the state and federal marijuana policy
conflict, arguing that legalization laws are enabling foreign cartels to
exploit the system in a way that threatens broader public safety.

The discussion took place at a Senate Caucus on International Narcotics
Control hearing titled “Dirty Money: Chinese Organized Crime in Latin
America.” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), chair of the panel, raised the cannabis
issue and asserted that Chinese and Mexican cartels in particular using
marijuana laws in states like Maine and Oklahoma to mask illicit drug
trafficking activities.

Even as marijuana remains a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances
Act (CSA), “the federal government has turned its gaze elsewhere while
states have allegedly passed state [legalization] laws—which I used to
think were subject to federal supremacy, but only when the federal
government actually enforces the law,” the senator said.

Cornyn asked Ray Donovan, former chief of operations at DEA, about the
“consequences” of having foreign operators involved in the cannabis market,
particularly under the guise of legitimacy in states that have enacted
legalization.

Today's Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control hearing on Chinese
organized crime in Latin America, which I chaired, provided the opportunity
to examinethe direct threat that Chinese criminal groups pose to Americans
through trafficking poison across our borders, as…

— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) December 9, 2025

“The consequences have been over time that the black market marijuana
production is through the roof with very little scrutiny,” Donovan replied.
“We’re seeing billions of dollars in black market marijuana by and large.
There are many, many Chinese criminal groups that are now actively engaged
in production, distribution, trafficking and money laundering directly
attributed to black market and illegal state-legal marijuana networks.”

“The issue I see, senator, is that we have to make this a strategic
priority for the Department of Justice to go after these criminal elements,
because it is not just about marijuana,” he said. “We see those same groups
that are moving billions of dollars in fentanyl [and] methamphetamine money
on behalf of the Mexican cartels—these Chinese groups are being untouched.”

Cornyn agreed and said “these cartels, these criminal organizations, are
largely commodity agnostic. anywhere they can make money, they’re not
necessarily going to stop at quasi-legal marijuana farms in some of the
states.”

The former DEA official said he’d take the senator’s point “one step
further.”

Cartels “are like any other criminal entity. They will engage in all
different types of criminality, to include energy theft, gun trafficking,
migrant trafficking, drug trafficking–you name it,” Donovan said. “It’s
one-stop shopping for any Mexican cartel. They’re not limited to just drug
trafficking.”

The caucus meeting comes about three months after a GOP-led House committee
held a hearing focused on Chinese criminal organizations behind large-scale
illicit marijuana grows, taking testimony from a group of law enforcement
officials and a researcher who each attempted to link the issue to
state-level legalization.


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Meanwhile, in a recent report attached to a House spending bill covering
Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) bill, members
directed federal agencies to investigate illicit marijuana grows–with a
specific requirement to look into “any connections or links to Chinese
transnational criminal organizations and/or the government of the People’s
Republic of China.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) separately claimed in 2024 that there’s been a
proliferation of illegal cannabis activity in the U.S. associated with China.
And he also said that there were thousands of licensed medial marijuana
businesses in Oklahoma “flagged for suspicious activity over the last year
had a Chinese connection.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has also repeatedly raised concerns with federal
officials at hearings about Chinese-linked cannabis grow houses in her
state.

Leveraging the increasing attention to the issue, the prohibitionist group Smart
Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) put out an ad in July arguing that if
President Donald Trump moved forward with a pending cannabis rescheduling
proposal, it would empower Chinese cartels.

In 2023, a major marijuana lobbying firm apologized after sending a letter
to Senate committee leadership concerning a bipartisan cannabis banking
bill that contained “inappropriate” references to investments from China in
a “misguided attempt” to push for amendments expanding the legislation.

*Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.*

The post State Marijuana Legalization Laws Shield Foreign Cartels And
Threaten Public Safety, GOP Senator And Former DEA Official Claim appeared
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