Best of The Program | Guests: Lt. Chris Olivarez & Steve Robinson | 1/24/24

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Stu, what do you think the most impressive point that I made today was?

I mean, there's so many to choose from today's podcast.

I thought your passionate

45-minute rant on the inequities of the Oscar not going to Marvel Robbie for Barbie

powerful.

I didn't think anybody heard that.

I mean, I didn't

do that,

but I, oh my gosh.

I could feel

injustice there that's so deep with me.

We talk about a lot of things.

We talked about the border today.

A lot about the audio from Carrie Lake.

That just drives me out of my mind.

That is so immoral.

And, you know, if you want the moral high ground, you should call the GOP and say, enough.

That guy should not be the head of the GOP in Arizona.

And if you don't know what we're talking about,

you need to find out.

And it's right at the beginning of the podcast.

But that goes all the way, I think, to very high levels in Washington, D.C.

And we have a right to know who was making that offer and phone call.

I think I know, but you'll have to decide for yourself.

Also, more on the border, some really disturbing news, and it goes along with what's happening tonight on TV.

We're looking at the border and we have the lieutenant governor on with us from the great state of Texas.

They're not backing down.

You don't want to miss it.

And then a very heartfelt plea to the audience that of people who disagree with me to call in and talk to me about why you would vote for Biden.

and

what you're feeling.

We had an interesting call from a guy who's a conservative.

He says, I can never vote for Donald Trump.

I will vote for Joe Biden.

Fascinating conversation you need to hear.

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You're listening to

the best of the blend back program.

Well, welcome to the program.

Now, I want to start with something that I don't think if we were a liberal show, MSNBC, we would be doing this.

But I think conservatives are different.

I think I, at least I do, I want to know all the bad things that are happening in my own party because I believe my own party, even though it's not my party,

the people on my side, if you will,

some of them are corrupt.

And I don't have an answer for who did this, but I want you to just ask yourself

the mom formula.

And I'll tell you what the mom formula is after you listen to this.

It was last year at CPAC.

Carrie Lake made a pretty bold statement, and she said, someone in the GOP,

in the back East GOP, tried to bribe me to keep me from running for Senate.

Now, a lot of people can say those things, but do you have the evidence?

Yes, she does.

And it was released yesterday.

I want you to hear this, which was taped,

I believe, by her.

And it is the voice of the Republican, head of the Republican Party in Arizona.

Listen.

Is there a number of which

I can be bought?

Not be bought.

That's what it's about.

You can take a pause for a couple years.

No.

I'm going to go right back to what you're doing.

No.

10 million, 20 million, 30.

No, no, no.

A billion?

No.

This is not about money.

This is about our country.

I think it's disturbing that they would even

that anybody would think this is

to be fair even me even me I'll say this

I want a fresh face right now for the reason that I've never seen anyone.

I can't think of a single person in a federal race who've lost Randy and Won.

I can't think of it.

If you can think of it, let me know.

I am not going to let these people who hate our country tell me not to run.

You should call them and tell them to get behind me.

So, what's going on?

What is, I'm assuming this is our friend.

This is, this is, this is back east.

They

there are very powerful people.

They want to keep you out.

No, they do.

But they're willing to put their money where their mouth is in a big way.

So,

this conversation never happened.

This is crazy, though.

They should want me.

I'm a great candidate.

People love me.

These people are corrupt.

Well,

maybe you're right.

They are right.

They are corrupt.

Maybe you're corrupt.

This is rap.

Don't go.

You're ever going.

I don't get myself in trouble.

This, if you if you if you say no which is fine it's your choice don't tell people they're gonna have try to have me murdered

Saints World man if that stuff that came out last week is right about the cartel stuff I mean

they say the cartel's operating in 50 states right now like all 50 you know

so

so what what what's going on who is it what

forget the who

let me just tell you the what

let's just say there are people calling around

saying

gosh, no, they can't repeat this.

Never repeat this.

If you say no, don't, because I got offered to buy a

don't eat it.

Because then we lose our ability to get things done

in the future.

Here's my problem.

Rather than just say, let's work with her, she's a great candidate.

Because they don't own me.

And it pisses me off.

Yeah, I said it's about ownership.

It's about control.

I don't know if it's about control.

It's about

being on the team.

I guess that's...

They want to be on the team.

They want you to be on their team.

But if they're pushing a globalist agenda, I can't do that.

So what do they want?

What do they want me to do?

You want to stay opportunists.

But, I'll tell you what I can offer you.

But.

I said you can do whatever you want with the talking head isn't it.

So the ask of me was, it's kind of funny.

So the ask I got today from back east was, this is Hesse's,

was, is there any companies out there or something that could just put her on the payroll and give her, to keep her out?

And I said,

well, what do you want to do?

Whatever we need to do.

This is about defeating Trump.

And I think that's a bad, bad thing for our country.

DeSantis is not America first.

This is about the final

death blow to Trump.

And I don't think that's good for our country.

No, I love Trump.

I mean, I love Trump.

It's not good for our country, Jeff.

It's not.

But at the same time,

I'm not even sure Trump's going to get.

I don't know that you can win again.

I think what it really comes down to for a lot of people, it's not really about control or agenda.

It's just about the ability to raise money to win.

If you really want to know, all of those public schools are not going to be, I think.

I always believe that.

And even on their end, what makes them the most money?

I know.

All these consultants don't want their payday to end.

And I don't want to make a deal with these kind of people.

This is a hill worth dying on.

If they're going to steal the election to make me and our movement go away, I'm not letting them do that.

I owe it to the people of Arizona.

Or.

To carry their torch and their voice.

Or

who don't go away.

But you pause.

This is the battle's right now, Jeff.

You pause.

And you tell your caucus.

No, the battle is right now.

The battle is right now.

And we don't have time to pause on this battlefield.

You're not.

You can't scratch their back.

It's not afraid of it.

Yeah.

You don't have anything to offer them.

You don't have any of them.

And they're sitting around around people that have stuff to offer them.

You know what I mean?

It's just,

it's a backscratching club.

That's all DC is.

It's a big back scratching club.

You're in no position to scratch anybody's back, and you've already made it known that if you get there, you're not going to scratch anybody's back.

I all scratch people's back.

I've been on the outs for a lot of people for a long time because I don't scratch my back.

Where are we in two years?

Could they steal the election again?

Listen to what you're saying.

Why don't we do something about it?

What?

So that we, the people, can pick our...

What can we do?

I'm not willing to accept that and I'm gonna be the biggest pain in these people

go back and tell them that I'm running and I'm gonna be the biggest pain in their

And I'm willing to tell them that

and they're gonna have to kill me

To stop me

that is incredible and incredibly slimy

The the name of the guy who is making this offer is the chair of the Arizona Republican Party.

I've talked to some legal experts.

You're not sure if this is illegal.

You're not sure if this is illegal?

You're offering someone a bribe.

If it's not illegal, it should be illegal.

Some very powerful people want you to step aside.

Some very powerful people do not want you in.

Now, what can they give you to step aside?

Nothing.

Money, jobs, nothing.

No, we're not trying to stop you.

A pause.

Just a pause.

This is in our own party.

Let's ask the mom question of this, because who's responsible?

He says it's the powers back east, some people back east.

Now, I think I know who he's talking about I have heard through the grapevine for the last few years about this kind of stuff, not this blatant, but this kind of stuff happening.

Because somebody's got a big, huge treasure chest.

Now,

the mom question is motive, opportunity, and means.

Let's ask mom:

who has the motive to stop Kerry Lake from going into the Senate?

Who has the opportunity to do it?

And who has a giant Senate chest that has used it in,

I think,

ways that the average Republican would not be very proud of?

And we have seen this treasure chest used against Republicans who are the only choice in some states.

Who has the means?

Check, I'm thinking of someone.

The opportunity, check again,

and the motive, giant check.

Now, I have absolutely, I don't know who you came up with, but I have no idea if that's true.

That's why I don't want to say a name, because

I don't know.

But we damn well better find out.

Every single person in this audience should be calling the GOP national headquarters today and saying, What the hell is this?

I'm sorry, I won't accept that you can't find.

For some reason, we had somebody leak a SCOTUS

decision, put our Supreme Court justices lives at risk, and somehow or another

they couldn't get that one of the two people that had access to it.

They couldn't figure out who it was.

You've got like two to four people maximum that had that.

You can't figure it out.

Ha.

I'm so sick and tired of this.

Every single person that writes writes a check to any GOP person, you should not fund the GOP until this is exposed and cleaned up.

This is corruption at the highest levels.

No, no, this is, this is, what did he say?

This isn't about control.

This is about ownership.

I thought he said it wasn't about ownership.

It was about winning the election.

No, he said it was about ownership and then it's about being on the team.

It's about being able to raise money.

Yeah.

Okay.

She said it was power and control and he said, no, it's just ownership.

They want you on the team.

So in other words, they want to own you.

That's the problem in Washington.

And I'm sorry, we cannot say we're the good guys if this stuff is happening in our own party.

This is the kind of stuff that we all say we're against.

Are we against it in our own party?

Because I am.

I'm pretty sure you are too.

Did you hear how slimy that guy was?

No, it's not me.

It's not me.

Don't, I mean, I'm just the messenger.

I'm just the messenger.

I'm just saying I got a call from back.

You know what happens when I get a call from Back East?

First of all, my gosh, was Lucy right about, you know, that Christmas is run by the syndicate Back east?

My gosh.

So I got a call from Back East.

You know what I do with that call?

I'm not doing that.

Do your own dirty business.

Click.

But see, he has ambitions.

He wants to go higher.

He wants to be one of the bigwigs that he can call out West someday and say, Look, here's what I want you to do.

Shame on you, Jeff DeWitt.

Shame on you.

Do you have do you have no pride?

Do you have no love of country, of decency?

Do you not know what ethics are?

I suggest you start looking them up, Jeff,

because you're so far away from ethical.

It's shocking.

This is what Donald Trump is fighting.

And let me tell you,

this is exactly the kind of stuff that Nikki Haley allowed to happen in her own camp.

She knew really bad organizations and funds that fund the Democratic Party in all kinds of ways

went to her and said, look, we'll fund you.

And she said yes.

This is not good by any stretch of the imagination.

And each of us should be, in fact, can you get the number to the national headquarters of the GOP so people can call and write today?

Because you should call and write and say not another dime to any candidate.

None.

You think it's hard to raise money before?

Now without, with this out, unless you clean house on this and show us who did it, you're done.

All right, right back to the podcast in a second.

First, let me tell you about our economy.

It has been dominated by businesses that cater to the woke mob.

And we found out with the WEF, It's not just the mob.

This is the way these elites think.

They don't think that you should have the the right to eat meat.

They don't think that you should have all the rights that you do.

They're talking about taking over of private property and totally, fundamentally changing the world.

Well, you know, it's more than just transgenderism.

It's more than just aborting babies.

They are going full,

full throttle into darkness.

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Now back to the podcast.

This is the best of the Glenn Beck program, and we really want to thank you for listening.

Welcome to the Glenn Beck program.

We're hoping the

head of the Department of Public Safety is going to be joining us from Texas here.

Talk to us a little bit about what they did yesterday.

They doubled down.

Texas, Ken Paxton, came out and said, we're going to protect the sovereignty of Texas.

Well, within the law, too.

Yeah, it's not defying any orders.

They just can't do anything if the federal government snips the wire.

But

the

Supreme Court didn't say anything about Texas.

It said,

you know, everything about

the feds.

They can go in and cut it.

Okay, go for it.

There's a couple of things that we should talk about in the meantime.

One, Donald Trump won handily last night.

It was interesting to see how the polls

started to come out.

And they always say, look, there are these counties that haven't yet come in, and they're going to be heavy Haley, or they're going to be heavy, you know, Trump.

It didn't say that CBS, which is the only, for some reason, the only thing I could get yesterday,

was...

Were you in prison?

I was trapped.

I really was trapped.

Don't ask me, but I was trapped.

And so I'm watching it on CBS, and it says basically, you know, it's pretty close to a tie.

She's within four or five points.

Well, no, that's not what it was.

I mean, she wasn't that close for a while in the reported results.

But if it was really four to five points, there's no way they call it.

And I will say this.

They didn't call it.

Oh, they CBS didn't?

CBS did not call it immediately.

Almost everybody did call it immediately, which is quite the statement.

Honestly, I was surprised they didn't drag the drama out a little bit longer.

Oh, no.

They wanted to make sure that Haley looked like a victor that was only five points away.

That's not what it was.

I mean, that Trump was a victor, but Haley was right on his tail.

Yeah, but why would they announce, why would they call the race for Trump immediately?

You could keep it.

You could call it for Trump immediately, but because you want that narrow spread.

You want people to see it at that narrow spread and then go away.

Okay.

Well, maybe.

Maybe, maybe that's true.

I mean, to me, it just seemed like it wasn't even a contest because the second the polls closed, they were like, okay, we got to call it.

You know, like that's when they have information like that, what they know is it's a blowout.

It's not a five-point race.

They know it's not a five-point race.

I know that.

But that's CBS might have been just a.

Yeah, they were, I mean, they're all calling it.

That's the number you see, and you're like, oh, wow, she did a lot better.

No, still 11 points away.

All right.

We have our guest on.

He's made it on, thank God.

It's Lieutenant Chris

Olivares.

He is with the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Lieutenant, welcome to the program.

Yesterday, Texas kind of just doubled down, did we not?

Absolutely.

Thank you for having me on, Grant.

So yes, great to be with you and, of course, your listeners.

So

as you mentioned, yes,

state of Texas, we're not backing down.

Governor Abbott made it very clear that the fight is not over with this whole situation at Shelby Park and Eagle Pass.

I just got back from Eagle Pass last night to kind of get a rundown of what's happening and what's going to take place with this whole Supreme Court decision.

And nothing has changed, at least on our end, with DPS and National Guard.

We're still continuing with operations at Shelby Park.

We still have restricted access to Border Patrol in that area.

And in fact, National Guard is installing more barriers, more Constantino wire, more fencing along the river to make it more challenging and try to discourage illegal border crossing.

So Texas is not backing down.

And we appreciate the support from everyone in Texas, you know, as far as supporting what we're doing and what we've been doing for the last three years with border operations.

So we're very thankful for that.

They claim that you are, I love this, that you're making it more difficult for them to do their job.

But I'm not sure what their job is if

razor wire and fencing, which is built to discourage people from coming across the water, I'm not sure what their job is.

How is this

holding them back from doing their job?

Well,

it's all in a narrative, you know, Glenn.

Really, I mean, they're just trying to, they're trying to portray, and I say they, I'm talking about the federal government and even some of those that have been critical of Texas, really trying to create this divide between, you know, federal agencies and the state, which they're trying to create some type of conflict that's non-existent.

We still work great with Border Patrol, all the rank and file agents, the relationship has not changed, but it does not make their job difficult for one, because we have soldiers, we have state troopers that are at that park that are working along the river.

They can respond to situations.

And if they come across people, you know, any type of illegal immigrants, whether it be a family or child, they still turn them over to Border Patrol.

So Border Patrol is still able to respond and process those individuals.

We want to focus on those single adults that we are arresting right now for criminal trespass.

But this whole concept that it's going to make their job more difficult, I mean, that's inaccurate.

I mean, we look back in December in Eagle Pass, we had the largest influx of illegal immigration that we've ever experienced in the last three years.

Every single Border Patrol agent in that sector was pulled from the field to process people.

You had secondary checkpoints, Border Patrol checkpoints that were shut down because those agents were used to process.

So now you have this free-for-all for all the criminal activity for human smugglers to take place.

So now, by us actually taking over this area, it allows those agents to get back to the field to focus on that criminal work that

they want to do.

They don't want to do administrative work.

They want to be out in the field.

I want to make sure that we're not passing on any disinformation, but I am surprised at our federal government for not tracking this down.

There is a video that is going around, and let me play it cut four please

if you are smart enough you would know who I am but you are really not smart enough to know who I am but soon you're gonna know who I am very easy

very easily okay

soon you're gonna know who I am now there is

there's all kinds of things going around that that say that this guy was in Guantanamo for I think 11 years and was released.

However, we're looking at current pictures of the guy and he's a lot older than this guy appears to be.

But I don't know.

Has anybody run facial recognition on this guy?

You know, I saw that video circulate on social media, and I think that really shows it's a clear example of the threats that are coming across our border, especially when someone is actually saying that you're going to know who I am soon.

Those are the type of threats that we worry about.

And that's the type of threats that are coming across the border right now.

They're exploiting the current situation, but yet our own federal government is not doing nothing to stop it.

And of course, when Texas steps up, you know, we're criticized for what we're doing because we want to stop that.

We want to stop those public safety and national security threats.

Just today, Border Patrol released that there was over 96,000 known gotaways.

since October 1st for this fiscal year.

Those are individuals that have made it into the country right now, And we don't know where they're at, what their intentions are.

And when you hear something like that from that individual on that video,

you can only imagine now the type of people that are in the country right now that have been able to get away and that possibly want to cause harm to our country.

The threat is here.

And I've said that numerous times.

The threat's already here.

And that's why it's so important to have border security.

But again, it all goes back to the policies and the fact that there is no consequences in place to discourage illegal border crossings.

Well, I just find it hard to believe that our federal government has a video.

We know they can run facial recognition.

If he's in a database, if he's a known terrorist, why we aren't talking about that?

Why the public isn't being told who he is and to keep your eye out for this?

It just kind of, you know, again, goes under the wire and nobody seems to care about it.

And, you know,

we have enough problems.

We don't need a terrorist attack on our shores well.

You're right.

That's the last thing we need, right?

I mean, of course, but now with this whole situation for the last three years and the number of people that have made into the country undetected, those threats are real.

I mean, that's a real, that's the clear reality of the situation.

And it does go back to what the federal government has failed to do.

And they could have changed this.

They can change this.

But they still refuse to do that.

And when you see videos like that circulating, they know the threat is here.

They know those type of threats that are coming across.

But as you mentioned,

has anything been done to identify this individual?

Probably not.

And we probably won't know now,

maybe days, weeks later, when they actually find out this individual was probably wanted or maybe on the terror screening database.

But by that time, it's too late.

And that's happened in many cases.

So that's why it all goes back to having a proper vetting process in place, but that's not being done right now because the agents are just overwhelmed.

Resources are strained.

And that's why you see this constant flow of people coming across the border unvetted.

Lieutenant Chris Olivares, he is with the Texas Department of Public Safety.

He's a spokesperson and bringing us the news that Texas is not standing down and not sitting down.

Thank you so much, Lieutenant.

I appreciate everything you guys do.

Appreciate you and the support.

Thank you.

You got it.

Bye-bye.

It's

just,

it's beyond

unbelievable to me.

It's just beyond the realm of believability that we can have this kind of

video

and the federal government hasn't said anything about it.

The federal government is not coming out and saying, hey, he's a known terrorist, be on the watch for this guy.

They haven't said anything.

And this is the reason for,

is it disinformation?

Yeah, disinformation.

Which one is the one that you know you're telling a lie?

That's misinformation, right?

I think it's misinformation.

I think the definitions in front of me because we've talked about it so many times.

Disinformation is you're just passing something on.

You don't have a nefarious.

And that's what's happening.

I don't know if anybody has a nefarious reason for putting this out.

He does look like that guy.

My team, you know, and who are we to say?

My team, we look at it and we're like, I'm not sure if that's the same guy.

He looks older now than that.

But it could be.

But where's our federal government?

Where is anyone who is actually paying attention to the things people care about?

Why do we keep talking about how MAGA is so extreme?

Really?

Is it MAGA that is extreme?

The one that's just saying, hey, I'd like some law and order.

I'd like to make sure that terrorists aren't coming into our country.

I'd like to make sure that we're not enabling people to rape women over and over and over again as they're coming here.

One reason why there's not so many women and children?

Yeah, because there's a lot of men there, some of them nefarious.

And you have to go through the cartels.

You want to send your wife?

You want to send your daughter?

I don't.

God only knows what happens to them.

So, misinformation is false or inaccurate information spread without harmful intent.

Disinformation is false information spread with the intention to deceive.

So that is like you know it's false, you're spreading it to deceive.

Malinformation is information that is somewhat is based on reality, but is still used to inflict harm on a person or

organization or country or whatever.

So

I think you were talking about is disinformation, which is an actual straight out lie or malinformation, which is somewhat true, but treated in the same way.

So in my day, we used to just have lies.

Okay.

We had lies.

Oh, you old timey guy.

Yeah, yeah.

And we had lies of omission and commission, meaning you knew what you were doing and you lied about it.

Or you just didn't say anything.

But that was a lie because you knew what the truth was.

I think I, you know, I'm an old timer, sure, but I'm pretty comfortable with just using lies or propaganda.

Hmm?

Which you boil propaganda down and it is

lies.

You're listening to the best of Glenn Beck.

Need a little more?

Check out the full show podcast.

We had a call yesterday who was reporting something that he had read in the main wire.

The editor-in-chief and investigative reporter is Steve Robinson.

He has been doing a lot of work at the MaineWire.com

and he has been trying to cover

the politics and everything else that's going on.

But one of the things that he has really uncovered and has been on for the people of Maine is how Maine has been overrun by unlicensed Chinese operated grow sites.

Now, these grow sites are growing marijuana.

They're unlicensed, so they're illegal.

And it is, it is China coming in and populating all of this.

We checked into Steve.

I wanted to make sure that he was somebody that, you know, actually was credible.

He worked for the Howie Carr Show, Barstool Sports.

In fact, the

police up in Maine use some of his reporting as a training manual for uncovering this particular problem up in Maine.

So thanks for the tip to our listener that called in yesterday.

Steve Robinson is on with us now from the MaineWire.com.

Hi, Steve.

Hi, Glenn.

Thank you very much for having me on.

You bet.

So tell me what is happening.

Yeah, so the reporting from our perspective really began with the week of a Department of Homeland Security memo.

It was a picture of an email that had been sent around.

And what it said was that there were hundreds, over 800 Chinese-owned illegal marijuana cultivation sites operating within the United States.

And it specified that there were more than 270 of these sites operating in Maine.

And that came as a surprise to me as a lifelong Mainer, someone who covers Maine politics.

I'd heard some about it, but 270 seemed like a big number.

So after that initial story came out, we decided that we were going to start reviewing public records, interviewing people in the community, and try to see if we could find these locations and really flesh out this story.

And so I actually called a buddy of mine in the central part of the state and asked him about it.

He's an electrician and he's plugged in with this and he said, oh yeah, it's a big problem.

There's seven of these in our hometown.

And so I went to Dexter where I grew up and I went around and I saw these sites and

you can smell them and there's other indications based on the property records, the tax records, electrical permit records where you can put together that it's a pretty big sophisticated marijuana grow without even having to look inside of it.

And then you can look and ask the town, you know, have you guys approved any marijuana grow sites?

For the most part, the local police, the county sheriffs, the state police, they know where these locations are.

But for some reason, even as this network has proliferated across rural Maine over the last three years, there really hasn't been a tremendous amount of law enforcement activity around them.

Now, that's kind of starting to change.

There's been about eight or nine busts of these facilities.

And you're talking about places where they're growing 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 marijuana plants and trafficking that typically out of Maine to places where there are still black markets and they can get a higher value for it.

But it's a vast network, a vast organized crime network that is taking advantage of rural Maine, buying up houses that middle-class families could be living in, using tremendous amounts of electricity, which increases prices for the rest of Maine, and generally undermining the quality of life for people in the state.

So this is happening over six different counties in Maine.

And

these sites are purchased by whom?

Are they Chinese nationals or do they hire an American to be the name on

the title?

How is this working?

So

none of them that I've found have an American name on the deed.

Most of them, according to the Department of Homeland Security, they believe that the sites are operated by individuals who are president in the United States illegally.

Some of them are...

Wait, wait, wait.

Illegally or legally?

Illegally.

They do not have authorization to be here in the United States.

And I'll say that the rise of this network in Maine has corresponded with unprecedented levels of

encounters of Chinese nationals at the southern border, according to DHS data.

So there's every reason to believe that the people who are here are operating these sites are here illegally.

The Chinese individuals who own these sites are predominantly from Brooklyn and Quincy, Massachusetts.

And whether they have legal status or not is hard to discern because New York and Massachusetts will both give a driver's license to an illegal alien, regardless of their citizenship status.

And

do they speak English?

Do they fit in?

They operate really apart from the community.

They're often never seen outside of the houses.

They'll go to gross shops in the areas where they'll show a picture of the product that they want on their phone and indicate that that's what they want for supplies because they're spending a lot of money at the gross shops.

They are treated like VIPs.

For the most part, they have enough English to get by.

If they're ever questioned by law enforcement or a code enforcement officer, we've heard stories about their ability to speak English rapidly going away when they think that they're coming under scrutiny.

At a recent bust in Machias, Maine, that was spearheaded by the Machias Police Department and the Washington County Sheriff's Office, which is, you know, it's one of the most rural counties in Maine, law enforcement uncovered

a

PRC passport, two Malaysian passports, an airplane ticket that showed a recent arrival from the People's Republic of China, and they also found close to 3,000 pot plants in nine different grow rooms.

And they found in the meter box, because of course these places need tremendous amounts of power, they found that the meter box had been rewired by someone with a sophisticated understanding of electrical engineering so as to steal power from the power grid.

And the power company doesn't really know exactly or hasn't told law enforcement how much power was being stolen or for how long.

But their best guess is tens of thousands of dollars worth of electricity was stolen and used to create a tremendous amount of marijuana.

And they know that they were using through the meter 10,000 kilowatt hours a month in addition to whatever they were stealing.

So across the board, the impact of these sites, this operation on the state is not doing anything good for the people of Maine.

And there's also quite a bit of evidence that the people who are operating these sites are victims of human trafficking.

The three individuals who were managing the GROW in Machayas said that they were paid between $1,000 and $2,000 a month for their work managing that GROW.

So why is this not being picked up by the state?

Why is nobody doing anything about it?

It's illegal.

They're not licensed to do it.

Why isn't anything being done?

That's a fantastic question.

The governor of the state, Janet Mills, has been completely silent on this, as has her appointed police commissioner.

The congressional delegation, when the original story broke, all four of them sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking him to take a look at this.

They never received a response.

A few months later, Senator Susan Collins sent a letter highlighting the Maine Wire's reporting to the U.S.

Attorney of Maine.

There's some indication that she might be taking, you know, hearing evidence from law enforcement about developing a possible strategy for this.

But I think that the real answer is twofold, Glenn.

It's when the when the people of Maine voted in 2016 in favor of legalizing marijuana and in 2020 brought out the regulatory framework, that was a signal to law enforcement that marijuana was no longer a law enforcement priority, that they should be focusing on fentanyl.

So when they hear about a marijuana grow, they kind of just say, oh, all right, well, it's not really a problem.

But the other one is a fear of racism.

There's a tremendous amount of concern amongst law enforcement, amongst the power companies, regulators, anybody, that there'll be a perception that they singled out somebody based on their race, their ethnicity, their nationality.

And that has hampered law enforcement's ability to deal with a criminal network that is operating with the tacit, if not explicit, blessing of the Communist Party of China.

Where's this money going?

According to the Department of Homeland Security, a lot of the money is going right back to PRC, and money does not flow back to mainland China without the approval of people in the government there.

The money is also being used to finance other activities according to the feds like human trafficking, like

narcotics trafficking as well.

That's been harder for us to pin down in the course of our investigation because fentanyl isn't quite as smelly as marijuana is.

It's harder to pin down.

But the Homeland Security does believe that they're engaged in narcotics trafficking.

And like any criminal organization that's running rackets, why wouldn't they expand and diversify if they already have a network set up along the I-95 corridor to move product up and down and distribute it to where they can sell it to customers?

I can't believe, I mean, because this is happening in other states, it's not just Maine as well, so it's happening everywhere.

Steve Robinson, he is from the Maine Wire, as in the state, with an E, the mainwire.com.

Check out his work.

You, Steve, have my producers' phone numbers.

You get any more information, you're furthering the story at all.

Please call us and update us, will you?

Absolutely, Gohan.

Will do.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Steve Robinson, mainwire.com.

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