A Human Cost: OBN Finds Sex Trafficking Connected To Oklahoma's Illegal Medical Marijuana Farms

Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics investigators pulled cash, a gun, several drugs, and two sex-trafficked women from four different homes connected to medical marijuana farms on Thursday.

Agents found a human cost to Oklahoma’s marijuana problem. OBN spokesperson Mark Woodward said Oklahoma is really good at producing illegal medical marijuana.   

“We have cheap land and some of the loosest regulations,” Woodward said. “We’ve had these criminal organizations come to Oklahoma.” 

Woodward’s team at the OBN stands in the way of ghost growers that haunt Oklahoma communities.  

 “They know how to hide the workers – how to manipulate the paperwork and make the money disappear – the people disappear,” Woodward said. 

Woodward’s team served search warrants on Thursday for four Oklahoma City homes and arrested two people.  

“We found firearms, we found cash, Ketamine, and some unmarked pills at this point,” Woodward said. 

OBN also found two people. Two undocumented Asian women were sex trafficked and used as prostitutes in these criminal operations.  

“They’re considered a commodity that can be sold over and over again to make money for these criminal organizations,” Woodward said. 

These survivors are difficult to help because, Woodward said, they don’t see themselves as victims – rather as people who owe a debt to their trafficker.   

“They’re afraid of law enforcement,” Woodward said.  

These people are desperate to get money for their families thousands of miles away. Whitney Anderson is the Executive Director at The Dragonfly Home; an organization that helps sex trafficking survivors heal. 

“There is a massive human cost to this issue,” Anderson said. “Trafficking survivors fear traffickers' retaliation.”  

OBN’s investigation found a link between this brutal industry and illegal marijuana farms.   

“Specifically, to cater to upper management on a lot of these farms,” Woodward said. 

This costs the community money.  

“Our healthcare system, mental health, substance use, incarceration,” Anderson said. 

Sex trafficking also costs people their freedom.

“Traffickers thrive in communities that are unaware,” Anderson said. 

All for the sake of money in the criminal’s pocket.