A federal grand jury has indicted a Navajo man, his father and a business partner on charges that they were running illegal marijuana growing operations in New Mexico and on the Navajo Nation to supply the black market. The indictment was unsealed Thursday, a week after local, state and federal authorities raided the home of one of the defendants and two farms in a rural area east of Albuquerque that were no longer licensed by the state.
The charges against Dineh Benally, 48; Donald Benally, 74; and Irving Rea Yui Lin, 73, of California, include conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana, possession with intent to distribute and polluting a protected waterway. Prosecutors described the alleged operation as a brazen criminal enterprise and asked a federal judge to detain the men pending trial, suggesting in a motion that there was a risk the defendants would flee and that they were a danger to the community.
Dineh Benally first made headlines when cannabis farming operations in northwestern New Mexico were raided by federal authorities in The Navajo Department of Justice sued him, leading to a court order halting those operations. A group of Chinese immigrant workers also sued Benally and his associates.
The workers claimed they were lured to northern New Mexico and forced to work long hours trimming marijuana on the Navajo Nation, where growing the plant is illegal. Just last year, New Mexico marijuana regulators revoked the license of the growing operation in Torrance County, east of Albuquerque. Inspectors also found another 20, immature plants. According to the indictment, the enterprise involved the construction of more than 1, cannabis greenhouses, the solicitation of Chinese investors to bankroll the effort and the recruitment of Chinese workers to cultivate the crops.
Dineh Benally also is accused of approaching the chief of police for the Navajo Nation in an attempt to bribe him with drug proceeds to allow marijuana to be grown on tribal land. With armed guards securing the farms on tribal land, the indictment alleges, vacuum sealers were used to package marijuana and Chinese workers transported the drugs across state lines.
