China ties suspected in sprawling California pot operations as GOP urges FBI probe

Representative James Gallagher, a California Republican, has asked FBI Director Kash Patel to go after illegal marijuana farming in the northern part of his state, citing concerns that Chinese organized-crime networks may be bankrolling some of it. His letter, obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, follows findings from the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office about widespread unlicensed cultivation that relies on undocumented labor.

Gallagher described rural parcels dotted with plastic-covered hoop houses watered by groundwater trucked in from nearby wells. He said ranchers and farmers now compete for scarce water, risk contamination of their land, and live with threats to their safety. The letter cited estimates of up to 7,000 illegal growers in the Mount Shasta Vista subdivision alone, and he said the activity has also spread onto federal land, including the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.

In 2025, the sheriff's office eliminated 332,871 plants and confiscated 54,070 pounds of processed product. Investigators have linked the grow sites to people living outside the county, Gallagher wrote, while the people running them frequently hold no visible ownership stake. He questioned who is really funding and directing the grows, and whether those arrangements are meant to hide someone's involvement.

Summarized by PolitiKool from Fox News’s reporting. Read the full story at Fox News →