Police arrested a man who allegedly killed four Chinese men and women “execution style” at a marijuana farm in Hennessey, Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said police arrested 45-year-old Wu Chen in Miami Beach, Florida on Tuesday, November 22, after his car was flagged by a police car tag reader.
Chen surrendered without incident and was taken to a detention center. He will be extradited to Oklahoma and will face criminal charges, including murder and shooting with the intention to kill.
The Bureau said that the murder victims at the marijuana farm consisted of three men and one woman, all Chinese nationals.
The shooting at the huge, 10-acre marijuana farm in rural Oklahoma, also left a fifth Chinese national injured.
The police said that Chen entered one of the farm’s buildings at around 5:45 pm and mingled with employees of the farm before the shooting began.
Police received a 911 call about a hostage situation on the pot farm around two hours after the shooting started. When Sheriff deputies got there, they found four people dead.
On Monday, armed agents searched for the shooter on the 10-acre property, consisting of over 80 greenhouses, with drones and a helicopter.
The Bureau said that the murders were not random and that the victims were targeted due to an internal dispute.
Dennis Banther, Kingfisher County Sheriff, told the Kingfisher Times & Free Press that the five victims and the shooting suspect were connected to the farm and were acquainted with each other.
Since Oklahoma legalized medical marijuana in 2018, over 10,000 businesses have obtained licenses, and about one in every ten residents has a permit to buy medical marijuana.
Oklahoma Governor, Kevin Stitt signed a bill in May blocking any new marijuana dispensaries and stopping all new licenses, because lawmakers argued that foreign and out-of-state growers were saturating the commercial sale of marijuana and exploiting the state requirements and Oklahoma’s limited law enforcement.
Law enforcement has reportedly seen an increase in human trafficking victims brought in to work on marijuana farms.
Next year, Oklahoma voters will decide whether to legalize recreational use of marijuana.