The Justice Department charged seven Chinese nationals this week for allegedly operating a multi-million dollar marijuana trafficking ring.

Authorities in Massachusetts arrested six of the defendants on Tuesday morning, but one remains at large. The DOJ says the migrants were smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border to work in marijuana grow houses and had their passports withheld “until they repaid their smuggling debts.”

“This case pulls back the curtain on a sprawling criminal enterprise that exploited our immigration system and our communities for personal gain,” said U.S. Attorney Leah Foley. 

“These defendants allegedly turned quiet homes across the Northeast into hubs for a criminal enterprise – building a multi-million-dollar black-market operation off the backs of an illegal workforce and using our neighborhoods as cover. That ends today,” she added.

The DOJ says the ringleader of the group was Jianxiong Chen, 39, but the others charged in the case are Yuxiong Wu, 36; Dinghui Li, 38; Dechao Ma, 35; Peng Lian Zhu, 35; and Hongbin Wu, 35, as well as Yanrong Zhu, 47, who remains at large.

Roughly 50 kilograms of marijuana seized from a Chinese national in the US. (Department of Justice)

Additional October 2024 searches of grow houses located in Braintree and Melrose where Ma and Zhu allegedly resided, respectively, resulted in the seizure of over 109 kilograms of marijuana, nearly $200,000 in cash and numerous luxury items including a gold Rolex watch with a $65,000 price tag still on it, the DOJ said.