Chinese nationals arrested in $5M Michigan pot bust may avoid prison

By Gus Burns

06-12-2025

Four Chinese nationals are accused of operating an enormous illegal marijuana grow in Michigan.

They may not face any jail time.

State police seized 5,057 plants valued near $5 million from a warehouse in Alabaster Township near the shores of Lake Huron on May 29, Iosco County Prosecutor James A. Bacarella said.

Less than a decade ago, the potential punishment was clear. Prison was likely.

The suspects are charged under a 1978 drug law with possession with intent to deliver greater than 200 plants, a 15-year felony, and maintaining a drug manufacturing facility, a misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in prison.

The problem is: courts are still sorting out whether those punishments remain in place, or if misdemeanor penalties written into Michigan’s 2018, voter-passed recreational marijuana law known as the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act should prevail.

‘I BELIEVE I’M RIGHT’

The state Court of Appeals ruled that the new marijuana law and its misdemeanor punishment applied when prosecutors charged Shaaln M. Kejbou of Tuscola County following the discovery of his illegal grow with more than 1,000 plants in 2020.

Conversely, the same court last year ruled the decades-old felony law applied to Julia Soto, a Niles woman inside whose home police found nearly 20 pounds of harvested marijuana and $10,000 cash. They believed she was a dealer.

Soto’s case has been appealed and is pending before the state Supreme Court. The outcome could determine if the Iosco County suspects face prison or a fine.

“Certainly, there is a possibility it could fall into (the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act),” the Iosco County prosecutor said. “Until some judge tells me I’m wrong. I believe I’m right.”

THE BUST

Bacarella said the suspects, three men, Wenying Wu, Changning Zhen and Zhenhong Nei and and a woman, Meiqing Chen, all had “legal status” in the U.S.

“One was here under an asylum petition, one had just gotten their Green Card and the other two were legal residents,” he said.

Nei was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE representatives haven’t respond to an MLive request for information about Nei’s detention status. The remaining suspects pleaded not guilty at arraignment and are scheduled for preliminary exams on June 17.

Some time after December 2023, the suspects leased the warehouse, listed as a nearly 6,000-square-foot building on almost 5 acres, according to prior real estate listings.

“It was a completely empty space,” Bacarella said. “They completely renovated, created the grow rooms, added the air conditioning units, all the grow lights, fans, humidity control. Everything was added.”

The prosecutor said state police became suspicious of the operation “pursuant to another an investigation in another county.”

Charging documents signed by state police Detective Sgt. Kaylie Birgy claim a search warrant for the warehouse was obtained after investigators received electricity records “showing an exorbitantly high amount of power being utilized, in addition to the odor of marijuana emanating from this location.”

After finding thousands of plants, detectives conducted surveillance and pulled over a black Ford pickup they believed was linked to the operation.

‘THEY WERE FLEEING’

Inside were the suspects, luggage and a cell phone with GPS coordinates leading to New York, the charging affidavit said.

“They were fleeing,” Bacarella said.

The four suspects lived together in an Oscoda apartment about 25 miles north of the warehouse, according to charging documents.

A search of the residence revealed documents connecting the suspects to the Iosco County grow facility, as well as a “known marijuana grow in Ionia where a previous search warrant had been executed” in January 2025, the state police charging affidavit said.

Bacarella said the marijuana “was probably going to New York” and in a press release stated: “The illegal grow operation appears to be part of a larger operation involving organized crime which spans multiple states and China.”

When he spoke to MLive, Bacarella declined to share further details.

What happens now may depend on the result of the pending state Supreme Court case involving Julia Soto.

Michigan marijuana pioneers wrote the 2018 legalization law in a way that drastically reduces potential punishments for growing, possessing and delivering marijuana, mostly eliminating the possibility of prison time or jail.

Anyone over 21 may possess up to 12 plants, 2.5 ounces of harvested marijuana while traveling and 10 ounces of marijuana stored at their residence. The amounts increase if the person is a certified caregiver with registered patients.

Someone who “possesses with intent to deliver not more than twice the amount of marihuana allowed” is subject to a misdemeanor and fine. The law also includes a penalty section for those who possess in excess of twice the allowable limits.

The penalty is a misdemeanor and “not be subject to imprisonment unless the violation was habitual, willful and for a commercial purpose or the violation involved violence.”

However, the Court of Appeals in its decision on the Soto case wrote that the penalty only addresses violations involving cultivation, possession or delivery without pay. It doesn’t address “possession with intent to deliver” large quantities of marijuana.

The court said because of the omission, the existing “possession with intent to deliver” felony laws, and the punishment ranging up to 15 years in prison, remain in place.

The distinction lies in whether prosecutors can prove “possession with intent to deliver,” because cultivation and possession the courts have ruled are not imprisonable offenses.

“The court ruled that cultivation of an unlimited amount of marijuana is a misdemeanor only, and in most circumstances, a non-jailable misdemeanor,” said attorney Michael Kemnitz who represented Kejbou, the Tuscola County man who had felony charges dismissed despite proof that he operated a 1,000-plus-plant grow.

Kemitz believes the Iosco County grow facility suspects have a similar chance to have their felony charges dismissed.

“I don’t know what the prosecutors are saying, but if all they found was a bunch of plants growing or being cultivated (the Kejbou ruling) says that’s a misdemeanor only.”