The Somerset County Sheriffs Office arrested three New York residents and charged them with cultivating and trafficking drugs after the search of a Skowhegan home on Friday revealed a large cannabis growing operation.
In a press release, Sheriff Dale Lancaster said detectives and deputies executed a Drug Search Warrant at a home on Waterville Road. Law enforcement seized 4,760 marijuana plants, over $7,000 in suspected illicit drug proceeds, a 2022 Toyota Tacoma truck, and illicit drug related articles.
Three people at the house were arrested. Yao Bin Cheng, 61, of Brooklyn, New York was arrested and charged with Trafficking in Scheduled Drugs and Cultivation of Marijuana. Ying Xia Liao, 59, and Xi Qiang Zhao, 56, of Brooklyn, were also charged with Drug Trafficking and Cultivation of Marijuana.
The suspects are being held at the Somerset County Jail on $10,000 cash bail each. Their initial appearance is scheduled for June 5 in the Somerset County Unified Court.
Detectives from the Waterville Police Department, Agents from Homeland Security Investigations and the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration as well as the Somerset/Kennebec County District Attorney’s Office, the United States Attorney’s Office and Investigators from the Office of Cannabis Policy assisted with the investigation.
The bust is the latest in a string of illegal cannabis growing operations investigated in Maine.
