Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment on 27 April 2026 charging 51 people with roles in an alleged conspiracy to grow black-market marijuana in Oklahoma and ship it to Texas, Mississippi, Kansas, North Carolina and other states.[1][2] A grand jury had returned the charges on 21 April 2026.[1][2]
In a coordinated takedown late the previous week, more than 100 officers arrested 28 of the 51 named defendants while 23 remained fugitives; warrants ran across Oklahoma, Texas, New York, North Carolina, Florida, Michigan, Kansas, Mississippi and California.[1][2] Agents also executed 22 searches in Cleveland, Kingfisher, Stephens, Payne and Okfuskee counties in Oklahoma and at locations in Michigan and Kansas, seizing about 61,000 marijuana plants and 550 kilograms of processed marijuana.[1][2] Thirteen additional non-citizens encountered during the searches were handed to immigration authorities.[1][2]
The indictment alleges that from March 2025 through April 2026 growers, brokers and transporters diverted cannabis from farms including sites around Stillwater, Hennessey and Paden into stash houses and interstate buyers, sometimes moving cash to hide proceeds.[1][2] The DEA’s Oklahoma office and the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics led the case with federal, state and local partners under the Homeland Security Task Force.[1][2] Defendants are presumed innocent unless convicted.[1][2]