At the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association’s 2024 Policy Meeting, Farm Director KC Sheperd had the chance to talk with the keynote speaker at the event, Attorney General Gentner Drummond, about an update on illegal marijuana grow operations in the state and more.
Drummond first talked about the recent arrest of several foreign nationals in connection with the seizure of a significant amount of marijuana allegedly headed for the illegal drug market.
Task force agents, in collaboration with several law enforcement agencies, executed two search warrants in Muskogee County on Jan. 11 that led to the seizure. Multiple firearms also were discovered in the search, as well as evidence that led agents to a half-million-dollar marijuana “stash house” in Bixby where they discovered signs of drug trafficking.
Following this most recent bust, Drummond said another 14 illegal marijuana grow houses voluntarily shut down in the state.
“This afternoon at 3:15, I am going to go on a bus where we are probably going to round up a whole bunch of bad people and destroy hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of illegal marijuana, and probably retrieve fentanyl, and probably liberate those who are being trafficked for labor and sex,” Drummond said. “It is a tragedy.”
Drummond said the illegal marijuana has created a distribution network for more illegal activity in the state.
“We have to not be naïve about it, and we have to be aggressive,” Drummond said.
Over 100,000 acres of Oklahoma have been purchased illegally by foreign nationals, Drummond said, and there is now a requirement as of November 1st, that if someone is transferring land, the person receiving that land must sign an affidavit that they are a legal resident of Oklahoma and qualified to buy land.
“Our objective is to root out those who illegally own land in Oklahoma…” Drummond said.
Drummond said that the land that is found to be owned illegally will be auctioned off and sold back into the ownership of Oklahoma residents.
