A Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence official is the head of a U.S. taxpayer-funded facility in the Mojave Desert where authorities dismantled a massive illegal marijuana operation, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered.
Police seized over 15,000 marijuana plants and arrested 14 people — including eight Chinese nationals — while conducting a July 2022 raid on a 75-acre Barstow, California facility owned by China-based quartz slab manufacturer American Quartz Inc. (AQ), which secured a multimillion-dollar Sunshine State grant earlier that year with support from Treasurer Fiona Ma and remains operational, according to the criminal complaint and state records.
Barstow’s former mayor Paul Anthony Courtney and a dozen other individuals were charged with felony counts of illegal marijuana cultivation and tax evasion in July 2025 related to the illicit operation, which allegedly may also have involved “violence,” “cruelty,” and witness intimidation, according to the criminal complaint. The charges against Courtney, who served as Barstow mayor until 2024, were ultimately dismissed in March 2026, when he agreed to plead no contest to a newly added “Fighting, Noise, Offensive Words” infraction, court records show.
Bench warrants have been issued for the arrests of the eight Chinese defendants, who have not appeared in court, and the other defendants pleaded not guilty in their ongoing cases.
While it is unclear if any of the defendants ever worked for AQ, Chinese government documents translated by the DCNF reveal that the company’s CEO, “Tommy” Hu Qiaomin — who was not charged — has extensive CCP state security ties and has held numerous positions within arms of one of the communist nation’s influence and intelligence agencies, including current membership in several such entities.
AQ, Hu, Ma and Courtney did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Hu’s ties to the CCP raise serious national security concerns in light of AQ reportedly continuing to operate as a “landlord” for cannabis cultivators post-raid, the Chinese company’s efforts to influence U.S. lawmakers and AQ’s proximity to sensitive U.S. government sites, including Edwards Air Force Base to the west, Fort Irwin to the north and Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow approximately 6 miles east.
“AQ operated as more than a commercial landlord; it gave a CCP-linked actor facility control inside a sensitive logistics corridor,” Ammon Blair, senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told the DCNF. “The facility matters as much, if not more, than the marijuana.”
“AQ sits near the Barstow International Gateway (BIG), which links the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the Alameda Corridor, BNSF Railway, warehousing, transloading, and national freight movement,” said Blair, who is a former Border Patrol agent and Army veteran. “It also sits near Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, which supports military logistics and operational readiness. That geography gives a hostile or criminal network practical value through staging, warehousing, workforce placement, cash movement, surveillance, local influence and commercial cover.”
‘For The Motherland’
Hu has held Chinese military, government and intel arm positions in both the U.S. and China, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government reports.
Born in Wenzhou, Zhejiang in 1955, Hu served in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) until 1980, when he began working for the state-run Wenzhou Foreign Trade Company, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government and state media reports. After building a shoe manufacturing company in Africa in the 1990s, Hu expanded his business to the U.S. in 2003.
While living in the U.S., Hu has maintained close ties with the Chinese government, including by serving as a representative to Wenzhou’s Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at least four times between 2012 and 2019, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government and state media reports. CPPCC delegates “serve as proxies for CCP interests,” according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC).
Hu’s Chinese patriotism made headlines in China during Wenzhou’s 2019 CPPCC conference, when he gifted custom-made vests featuring Chinese flags to other delegates.
“I frequently see overseas Chinese leaders wearing these patriotic vests at events and activities. It shows everyone’s sense of responsibility and pride for the motherland,” Hu said, according to a DCNF translation of a 2019 Chinese government announcement.
Hu has also held at least five positions within arms of a CCP influence and intelligence agency called the United Front Work Department (UFWD), which Beijing uses to steer foreign policy and “gain access to advanced foreign technology,” according to USCC.
Among other such roles, Hu previously served as a representative in the Wenzhou branch of the UFWD‘s China Overseas Friendship Association (COFA), and has served as an executive vice president in the UFWD’s Wenzhou Overseas Chinese General Chamber of Commerce since 2019, according to DCNF translations of UFWD announcements.
The entrepreneur has also led several California-based united front-affiliates, including the U.S. Wenzhou Association (USWZA), which is a nonprofit that is listed as an overseas chapter of a UFWD arm called the All-China Federation Of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC), according to DCNF translations of Chinese government and state media reports.
USWZA operates “under the leadership” of the Los Angeles Chinese Consulate, according to a DCNF translation of a speech Hu made during a February 2013 USWZA conference, which included attendees from the consulate as well as members of a UFWD arm that opposes Taiwan’s independence called the China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification (CCPPNR). While serving as USWZA’s chairman, Hu said the association had welcomed visiting Chinese officials, including General Secretary Xi Jinping and personnel from “China’s FBI,” the Ministry of Public Security (MPS).
“Over the past two years, our association has handled the highest volume of reception duties. We have hosted delegations from MPS, the State Tax Administration, the Communist Youth League Central Committee, the inaugural Central Art Leadership training program to the U.S., deputy provincial-level leadership training programs, the Zhejiang Song and Dance Troupe, provincial-level leading cadres training programs as well as municipal party committee, government, People’s Congress, and CPPCC committee delegations,” Hu said, according to a DCNF translation of the 2013 speech.
USWZA’s website continues to list Hu as a member and the entrepreneur appeared on stage alongside the association’s officials during USWZA’s March 2026 Chinese New Year event, photos and footage show.
Since 2017, Hu has also met with MPS officials in China at least five times to discuss matters including Wenzhou’s “overseas Chinese police” program — which established a yet unidentified Los Angeles police liaison station in 2018 — as well as an MPS platform that supports the CCP’s overseas courts, according to DCNF translations of Chinese government posts. Hu has served as chairman of another UFWD-affiliate called the Wenzhou Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce (WZLACC), which is a nonprofit that hosts one such overseas Chinese court, the DCNF reported in January 2025.
USWZA and WZLACC could not be reached for comment and the Los Angeles Chinese Consulate did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
“Hu’s Chinese government ties change the meaning of the case,” Blair said. “A former PLA soldier with CPPCC, UFWD, COFA, MPS, consular and overseas-policing ties brings the CCP party-state influence system into the ownership of a U.S. industrial site.”
‘Help From Friends’
While holding positions with CCP entities, Hu built a relationship with California State Treasurer Fiona Ma that helped deliver Chinese military-tied engineers and millions in taxpayer dollars to AQ, filings show.
In November 2019, Ma, her representative Daniel Sieu and his wife, who is also Ma’s “outreach specialist,” attended AQ’s groundbreaking ceremony, according to AQ’s website and photos accompanying Chinese government announcements.
During the event, AQ reportedly received the city key from Barstow officials as well as a commendation from Ma, who has presented such awards to CCP-tied individuals at least 10 other times, the DCNF reported in May 2026.
Ma and the Sieus, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment, continued to support AQ in several ways after its launch, including by meeting with Barstow officials and by helping at least seven engineers from China’s Veegoo Technology obtain U.S. visas, purportedly in order to help AQ build its assembly lines, the Victorville Daily Press reported.
Veegoo has been recognized by the Chinese government as a “Little Giant,” which is an affiliation that the U.S. Department of War has used to designate entities as “Chinese Military Companies,” according to federal sources and a DCNF translation of an announcement on Veegoo’s website.
While Daniel Sieu was the “central driver” of AQ’s push to secure introduction letters for Veegoo’s engineers, the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) — where Ma serves as a key voting member — also assisted, the Daily Press reported.
Money likewise moved between Hu and Ma’s entities after the 2019 groundbreaking ceremony, with filings showing that AQ and another company owned by Hu had collectively donated $11,000 to Ma’s political war chest by June 2024.
During an October 2021 event held by the William & Stephanie Foundation (WSF), Hu also made a “generous donation” of an unspecified amount to the nonprofit, which was established by the Sieus and lists Ma as its sole board advisor, according to business filings and a DCNF translation of a Chinese state media report.
“The arduous struggle of Chinese people in America has been filled with blood and tears,” Hu said while thanking Ma and Daniel Sieu for supporting AQ at the WSF event, according to a DCNF translation of the state media report. “Establishing a factory here is more difficult than in China, but if you have help from friends one can achieve twice as much with half the effort.”
The following year, GO-Biz awarded AQ with a $5 million California Competes grant in April 2022 contingent upon several conditions including the quartz slab manufacturer renovating the facility and creating 500 new full-time jobs in California, according to the contract, which was signed a month after AQ began leasing warehouse space to cannabis cultivators, the Daily Press reported.
States should not allow Chinese entities to own property or partner with cannabis companies, Steve Robinson, editor-in-chief of The Maine Wire and filmmaker behind the award-winning documentary High Crimes: The Chinese Mafia’s Takeover of Rural America, told the DCNF.
“Why is the CCP sponsoring black market cannabis cultivation and trafficking? The best answer I’ve seen is that cannabis trafficking provides a low-risk mechanism for stockpiling cash,” Robinson said. “So, the more important question from a national security perspective is what is the CCP doing with the billions of dollars in drug money these networks produce?”
(DCNF)