{"id":24061,"date":"2025-01-03T16:23:28","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T23:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/charges-filed-in-illegal-waterflow-cannabis-grow\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:47:14","slug":"charges-filed-in-illegal-waterflow-cannabis-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/charges-filed-in-illegal-waterflow-cannabis-grow\/","title":{"rendered":"Charges filed in illegal Waterflow cannabis grow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Photo
Photo from an Oct. 16 seizure of illegal cannabis at two properties in Waterflow.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Two Waterflow men were arrested for allegedly growing 200 times the legal amount of cannabis per their license in Waterflow.<\/p>\n

Irving Rea Yui Lin, 73, and Bau Xue, 59, were arrested Dec. 24 and booked into the San Juan County Detention Center on charges of trafficking cannabis products, unlawful possession of cannabis and penalties associated with the illegal personal production of cannabis.<\/p>\n

They were released to pretrial services, and both waived their preliminary hearings on Jan. 2 in San Juan County Magistrate Court.<\/p>\n

The charges came after a five-month investigation into illegal grows at 23 Road 6940 and 3658 U.S. Highway 64 in Waterflow.<\/p>\n

\"Irving
Irving Rea Yui Lin of Waterflow was arrested in connection to an illegal cannabis grow.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bau
Bau Xue of Waterflow was arrested and charged in connection to an illegal cannabis grow.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The cannabis grow totaled more than 170,000 pounds and reportedly was \u201cunder the control and direction\u201d of Lin and Xue, operating under the business NNK Equities, according to the affidavit for arrest warrant.<\/p>\n

NNK Equities reportedly had a license to grow 500 mature cannabis plants, but according to the affidavit, \u201cplant count was clearly above\u201d that number at 23 Road 6940, and \u201cthere were numerous greenhouses with cannabis plants being cultivated inside of the greenhouses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cannabis reportedly was being grown outside the greenhouses as well, with an estimate of \u201cbetween 1,000 to 1,500 Cannabis plants,\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division worked with the New Mexico State Police as well as the New Mexico Organized Crime Commission to come up with strategies to deal with NNK Equities, according to Organized Crime Commission Director Robert Hart.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is new ground for the state as to how do we regulate this and enforce it,\u201d Hart said, adding he looked at the violations from both the civil and criminal standpoints to see what could be done and determined the crop could be seized.<\/p>\n

Investigators seized 170,000 pounds of marijuana from both locations and destroyed it.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Photo from an Oct. 16 seizure of illegal cannabis at two properties in Waterflow.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

NNK Equities reportedly has looked at filing a lawsuit against the state to recoup its financial losses from the seizure. No lawsuit or tort claim notice has been filed as of yet in New Mexico District Court, according to the court website.<\/p>\n

The state began its investigation into the grow on June 20, 2024, and questioned Lin on Aug. 15, when he reportedly stated that he was \u201clooking for investors,\u201d and had no \u201cbusiness deal with \u2018big pharma\u2019 to sell the cannabis he was cultivating,\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 27, 2024, Lin reportedly told investigators he \u201cwanted to work with oil company\u201d and sell his cannabis for \u201cbetween $50 and $150 a pound,\u201d when he planned to harvest it in \u201clate October or early November,\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

However, investigators stated in the affidavit that on Sept. 4, they witnessed \u201ctwo males actively cultivating the illegal cannabis. The two males were going in and out of the greenhouses as well as watering the illegal cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sept. 12, investigators reportedly located 80,000 to 100,000 illegal cannabis plants at 3658 U.S. Highway 64.<\/p>\n

Then, investigators on Sept. 27, made Xue aware \u201cthat all cultivating and harvesting of Cannabis needed to stop at 3658 U.S. 64 Waterflow NM,\u201d the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

However, two days later, on Sept. 29, 2024, state police stopped a van registered to Xue and when a search warrant was obtained, 10 \u201cpounds of cannabis flower\u201d were found inside, according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n

The Cannabis Control Division sought and received a temporary restraining order on Sept. 30, and NNK was told to cease all cannabis production on both properties.<\/p>\n

\u201cillegal operators endanger the people in our state and compromise our legal cannabis industry,\u201d Regulation and Licensing Department Superintendent Clay Bailey said in a news release about the Oct. 16 seizure and destruction the cannabis plants on both properties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe organization involved showed a blatant disregard for the laws of this state, and we will prove that once this investigation is over,\u201d New Mexico State Police Chief Troy Weisler said in a prepared statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cCollaboration was key during this recent operation targeting illicit cannabis production,\u201d Weisler said. \u201cWe will continue to work with our partners to ensure those who undermine the legal cannabis market will face the full consequences of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Xue allegedly operated NNK Enterprises <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24061"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78380,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24061\/revisions\/78380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24061"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}