Maine’s illegal cannabis grow houses are being sold [Video]

At least 31 suspected illegal marijuana grow houses have been relisted for sale since law enforcement first raided the operations in January this year, an analysis of Maine real estate listings shows. Nearly a dozen appear to have sold.

Illegal marijuana “grow houses” have become a pervasive issue in rural Maine, where Chinese transnational criminal organizations have purchased anywhere from 100 to 700 single-family homes, hollowed them out and converted them into industrial-scale black market marijuana farms.

The homes are often filled with carcinogenic fertilizers, black market fumigants and extensive black mold infestations. Conditions inside the homes have been described as “uninhabitable” and “abhorrent” by authorities present at the raids.

Now, many suspected sites are being seemingly refurbished and relisted on the market. They are all rural single-family properties outfitted with several heat pumps and high-voltage electrical wiring that have been purchased in the last four years by out-of-state residents of Chinese descent with no previous presence in Maine — mirroring properties where alleged …