Marilyn Upchurch
1-23-2025
TORRANCE COUNTY, N.M. (KRQE) – Federal agents descended on two massive pot-growing operations in New Mexico Thursday morning. It comes months after a Larry Barker investigation revealed that the state knew about farms operating illegally outside Estancia and yanked their licenses. However, it took the feds to shut these suspected outlaw operations down.
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“I can’t get into the specifics as to what we’re doing, but I figure you can look at the clues behind us and all the things if you’ve been here a minute that are being taken out,” said Special Agent in Charge with the FBI Raul Bujanda.
Although the FBI wouldn’t go into detail Thursday about what exactly they were investigating, the smell on scene alone leaves little doubt.
The FBI targeted two farms on Thursday morning south of Estancia. One of those farms, off Highway 41, was the target of an investigation last Fall by Larry Barker who learned former Navajo Nation presidential candidate Dineh Benally was issued a cannabis license for that massive marijuana plantation.
Regulators learned it was an outlaw enterprise. “Native American Agricultural Development Company was found to be in violation of some of our most egregious statutory requirements,” New Mexico Cannabis Control Division Todd Stevens told Larry Barker in 2024.
The state revoked Benally’s license and slapped the facility with a $1 million fine. However, because New Mexico’s Cannabis Control Division does not have law enforcement powers, state regulators didn’t have the authority to do more. The FBI, however, could take action.
“It’s a law enforcement action. It’s something we’ve been working on for several months from the FBI perspective with our partners. Especially here with Torrance County. Obviously, this was a problem they had seen being residents in this county and they wanted something done. So, they reached out to the sheriff’s office and we reached out to our other partners,” said Bujanda.
The FBI said the investigation had help from multiple departments including New Mexico State Police, the New Mexico Attorney General, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They said after a long investigation, Thursday’s raid also included arrests. KRQE News 13 learned from court documents that one of those arrested was Benally, whose pending federal charges include drug manufacturing, intent to distribute, and polluting the water. A second defendant named Donald Benally was also charged.
“The individuals that have been dealing with and I’m talking from Torrance County Sheriff’s Office to include the other agencies like I mentioned HIS, they’ve been working on this issue for over a year,” said Bujanda.
The FBI thanked the community for the tips they said made Thursday’s raid possible. “If you see something that’s odd and out of the ordinary and something that maybe is impacting your environment, whether I’m talking about your water supply or anything like that, please reach out to law enforcement. Please reach out to FBI,” said Bujanda.
This week, a group of lawmakers introduced legislation that would give the CCD the power to raid cannabis farms so state regulators would be able to enforce their own cannabis production laws.
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