OKLAHOMA CITY — The owner of a company in Oklahoma City that makes kitchen counters and cabinets is accused of using a vehicle disguised as an Amazon delivery van in an illicit marijuana distribution operation.
Brandon Ye is charged in Oklahoma City’s Western District federal court with drug conspiracy.
An Oklahoma City police officer assigned to an FBI task force reported in an affidavit that during surveillance on a “stash house” in northwest Oklahoma City last December, a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter disguised as an Amazon delivery van backed into the driveway of the residence. Some “Asian men” unloaded several “full, black bags” from the rear of the van before the vehicle was driven away.
A search warrant executed at the residence several days later produced more than 60 pounds of marijuana packaged in one-pound vacuum-sealed bags stored in trash sacks, the officer reported.
Agents with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control confirmed that the residence served as “a stash house for the distribution of illegal marijuana.”
A little more than a year earlier, the Oklahoma City officer wrote, law enforcement officers from the FBI and the OBNDD traveled to Arkansas to interview an individual who was arrested for transporting more than 100 pounds of marijuana, packaged in vacuum-sealed bags that were stored in large trash sacks, from Oklahoma to Arkansas.
The individual “admitted … that he picked up the marijuana from a business and warehouse, Arch Granite & Cabinetry” in Oklahoma City.
Records searches showed the disguised Amazon van and Arch Granite & Cabinetry both are owned by Ye, the officer reported.
Further investigation showed Ye listed on utilities at a residence in northwest Oklahoma City where the suspect van was parked in the driveway overnight on multiple occasions, the task force officer reported. Amazon does not allow its drivers to park their delivery vehicles at their residences overnight, the court was informed.
Investigators alleged that marijuana was repackaged at the stash house and then transported to one of two warehouses under Ye’s control. At the warehouses “it appears that a semi-truck is loaded about once a week with the marijuana for transportation out-of-state,” the officer wrote.
Law enforcement officers in Indiana stopped a semi-truck found to be loaded with more than 2,700 pounds of marijuana on Feb. 22, 2023. The Chinese truck driver identified the Arch Granite warehouse in Oklahoma City as the location where the marijuana was loaded into his trailer, records reflect.
Brandon Ye was released from custody on $250,000 bond pending further hearings.