GREENFIELD — The FBI is searching for 47-year-old Yanrong Zhu, a fugitive Greenfield resident who allegedly conspired with six others to grow, transport and sell illicit marijuana in a ring that spanned Massachusetts, Maine and New York, and relied on labor from Chinese nationals who were smuggled into the country.

“This case pulls back the curtain on a sprawling criminal enterprise that exploited our immigration system and our communities for personal gain,” Leah B. Foley, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said in a statement. “These defendants allegedly turned quiet homes across the Northeast into hubs for a criminal enterprise — building a multi-million-dollar black-market operation off the backs of an illegal workforce and using our neighborhoods as cover.”

Zhu was stopped by law enforcement alongside one of his alleged co-conspirators, Quincy resident Hongbin Wu, after they left a grow house in Greenfield on June 5, 2023. Police seized $36,900 in cash from the vehicle and photographed Wu wearing a “money laundering” T-shirt, depicting an iron gliding over money, according to the defendants’ 18-page criminal indictment.

As of Tuesday, however, Zhu remains the sole defendant at large in an investigation involving six alleged co-conspirators. Zhu, alongside defendants Jianxiong Chen, Yuxiong Wu, Dinghui Li, Dechao Ma, Peng Lian Zhu and Hongbin Wu, all face a federal charge of conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuana. The charge provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, at least two years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.

Chen, 39, of Braintree, was also indicted on one count of money laundering conspiracy, 11 counts of money laundering and one count of bringing aliens into the United States. Four of the co-defendants face at least one count of money laundering or money laundering conspiracy.

According to the indictment, which was released Tuesday, the defendants were involved in a multi-million-dollar conspiracy to cultivate and distribute marijuana across the Northeast that used interconnected grow houses concealed inside single-family properties in Massachusetts and Maine. Starting in January 2020, the enterprise allegedly operated grow houses in Greenfield, Braintree and Melrose, among other locations. Profits from the marijuana sales were allegedly used to purchase luxury homes, automobiles, jewelry and other items in Massachusetts, including to expand the enterprise through the purchase of real estate.

The U.S. Department of Justice also alleges that Chinese nationals were smuggled into the country to work in the grow houses without access to their passports until they repaid smuggling debts.

“We arrested members of an alleged Chinese-run drug trafficking organization who are accused of running a massive marijuana cultivation and distribution scheme that has raked in millions and contributed widely to the illegal drug trade here in the Northeast,” Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston Division Ted Docks wrote in a statement. “Jianxiong Chen — the accused ringleader of this organization — is charged with paying to smuggle a Chinese national across the Mexican border to work at his grow houses. This takedown highlights the need for a sustained law enforcement effort, across all levels, to shut down and thoroughly investigate the organized criminal enterprises behind these unlicensed and illegal operations.”

It is alleged that the grow house operators maintained contact with each other through a list of marijuana cultivators and distributors from or with ties to China in the region called the “East Coast Contact List.”

Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.