Navajo man pleads guilty for illegal marijuana grow operations

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A Navajo man has pleaded guilty to 15 charges stemming from allegations that he ran illegal marijuana growing operations in New Mexico and on the Navajo Nation, smuggled pesticides into the U.S. and employed workers who were in the country illegally.

Federal prosecutors announced the plea agreement Tuesday, saying Dineh Benally admitted to leading what they described as a vast cultivation and distribution ring that spanned several years, exploited workers and polluted the San Juan River on tribal lands.

An indictment naming Benally, his father and a business partner was unsealed earlier this year after authorities raided farms in a rural area east of Albuquerque. The document said the enterprise involved the construction of more than 1,100 cannabis greenhouses, the solicitation of Chinese investors to bankroll the effort and the recruitment of Chinese workers to cultivate the crops.

Benally, 48, first made headlines when his operations in northwestern New Mexico were raided by federal authorities in 2020. The Navajo Department of Justice sued him, leading to a court order halting those operations.

A group of Chinese workers also sued Benally and his associates. The workers claimed they were lured to New Mexico and forced to work long hours trimming marijuana on the Navajo Nation, where growing the plant is illegal.

Federal authorities said about 260,000 marijuana plants and 60,000 pounds of processed marijuana were confiscated from the operation in northern New Mexico while the subsequent raid at farms near Estancia uncovered about 8,500 pounds (3,855 kilograms) of marijuana, $35,000 in cash, illegal pesticides, methamphetamine, firearms and a bulletproof vest.

Federal prosecutors said Benally faces a mandatory 15 years and up to life in prison when he's sentenced.