INLAND EMPIRE – (INT) - It’s hardly unusual for law enforcement throughout the Inland Empire to find an illegal marijuana grow house in an otherwise quiet urbanized area.

Case in point is Eastvale, Riverside County’s newest city, where raids on dozens of homes converted to grow houses have yielded thousands of thriving marijuana plants over the past 5-years.

The occupants of these grow houses have turned out to be Chinese nationals, raising questions about who is recruiting them and financing their operations.

Many of those arrested claim Los Angeles County addresses.

And, the problem isn’t confined to residential neighborhoods. San Bernardino County authorities have found similar situations in far flung deserts locals such at Newberry Springs near Barstow.

There have been multiple arrests of people with Chinese passports, some of them speaking no English and apparently providing little help to investigators.

One recent grand jury indictment asserts that money from a southern China bank account was transferred to California to pay for down payments on homes that later became grow houses, suggesting that at least some in China are investing the illicit U.S. marijuana market.

“These are sophisticated operations,” said Thomas Yu, a longtime Asian gang investigator with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. “When we hear about Asian gangs, we think about young guys doing drive-by shootings. This isn’t like that. These are organized ad hoc enterprises, run by businessmen. They are in it for the profit,” Yu told the Sacramento Bee.

Story Date: November 5, 2017