Deadly Oklahoma weed shootings expose network tied to New York money and China: report

A string of deadly shootings connected to Oklahoma marijuana farms — including a quadruple execution and a home-invasion murder — has exposed a shadow network tied to New York money, organized crime and groups with links to China, according to a new report.Authorities told the New York Times that the operations were fueled by out-of-state cash, concealed ownership and lax marijuana laws — allowing criminal groups to scale up illicit grows, exploit immigrant labor and divert massive amounts of weed into the black market.The trail led investigators far from rural Oklahoma to New York City, where real estate figures, political fundraisers and leaders of Chinese hometown associations allegedly bankrolled or backed the farms — groups that lawmakers say have ties to Beijing and have drawn scrutiny from federal authorities.Oklahoma’s wide-open medical marijuana law, which placed no limits on how much licensed growers could produce, created fertile ground for the scheme, investigators say, flooding the state with oversized grows that far outpaced local demand and fueled an illegal interstate trade.One central figure was New York real estate developer John Lam, a major fundraiser for former Mayor Eric Adams.Lam built at least 50 projects in the city and, according to the Times, bought a $1.5 million Oklahoma marijuana farm for his protégé Wyan Wang while later insisting he was merely an unpaid landlord with no role in day-to-day operations.Wang was found shot dead in his Edmond, Okla., bedroom in January 2025, lying face-down and still gripping a bloody kitchen knife investigators said he used to try to fend off intruders during a targeted home-invasion robbery — one of a string of violent attacks tied to the cash-heavy marijuana trade in the state.Wang, 61, worked for Lam’s company recruiting investors in China and ran multiple Chinese hometown associations in New York, including the pro-Beijing Taishan Du Hu Association of America, records show — groups ...