Somerset County Sheriff’s deputies executed a drug search warrant at a residence on Waterville Road in Skowhegan at 9:40 a.m. on Friday, 1 March 2024.[1] Three people were in the house during the search and all three were arrested: Yao Bin Cheng, 61, Ying Xia Liao, 59, and Xi Qiang Zhao, 56, all of Brooklyn, New York.[1] Each was charged with drug trafficking and cultivation of marijuana and held at the Somerset County Jail on $10,000 cash bail each.[1]

Inside the home officers seized 4,760 marijuana plants at various stages of growth, more than $7,000 in suspected drug proceeds, a 2022 Toyota Tacoma pickup and drug paraphernalia.[1] Sheriff Dale Lancaster said the operation was one of the largest his office had broken up, that the home had sparse living quarters, and that deputies saw possible black mould and electrical problems.[2]

Detectives from the Waterville Police Department, Homeland Security agents and the Drug Enforcement Administration took part, with help from the Somerset and Kennebec County district attorneys, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy.[1] The Skowhegan code enforcement officer and fire department were told of possible building code violations at the home.[2] Lancaster called the raid part of a wider investigation into illegal grows in Somerset County.[2] Their initial court appearance was scheduled for 5 June 2024 in the Somerset County Unified Court.[3]

Xi Qiang Zhao struck a plea deal with prosecutors in December 2024, pleading guilty to a misdemeanour that was later dismissed under a deferred disposition agreement.[4] Yao Bin Cheng’s trial was called off in September 2026 after his lawyer told a judge he had returned to China and did not intend to come back, and the judge issued a no-bail arrest warrant and ordered forfeiture of his $10,000 cash bail.[4] Cheng still faces felony drug trafficking and marijuana cultivation charges should he return to the United States.[5]