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“[O]fficials said there were worrying signs that ‘overseas’ triads had taken root in Guangdong,” the SCMP report said.
Under Maine law, Ou is not obligated to pay any real estate transfer taxes or capital gain taxes because the transfer is categorized as a gift.
Title transfer preparers, like Paul Mills, are not required to do any due diligence on the recipient of the gift transfer — or even prove that the recipient is an actual living person. Nothing in Maine or U.S. law prevents property owners from “gifting” land to individuals supposedly living in China.
As a resident of China, Lu would be far beyond the reach of Maine and U.S. law enforcement should they ever need to contact her in relation to the marijuana operation occuring on her new Penobscot County compound.
Paul Mills, 71, is the founder and managing partner of the Mills & Mills law firm, located at 163 Main Street in Farmington. People familiar with the real estate transfer process in Penobscot County said it would be uncommon for Mills — or any attorney based in Franklin County — to handle title transfers in Corinna.
“Mills & Mills is located in Farmington, ME and serves clients in and around Farmington, West Farmington, Farmington Falls, East Wilton, Temple, Dryden, Wilton, New Sharon, Jay and Franklin County,” the Mills & Mills website states.
When the Maine Wire called Mills & Mills posing as an attorney seeking title services on a property in St. Albans, a town abutting Corinna, Mills declined the job and offered the phone number of a Skowhegan law firm that, he said, “does work in that area.”
It’s unclear how or why Ou, who is a resident in Malden, Mass., would seek or obtain title transfer services from a Franklin County attorney for property in Corinna.
Gov. Mills did not respond to inquiries regarding her brother’s business dealings with the operators of a Chinese-owned illegal marijuana cultivation site in the heart of Maine.
Triad Weed in Maine
Last year, the leak of a Department of Homeland Security memo, first reported by Jennie Taer, brought to light the existence of more than 270 properties in Maine involved in illegal marijuana cultivation and trafficking.
According to the memo, the properties were controlled by Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations with ties to human trafficking, fentanyl trafficking, and activities in mainland China.
Since that time, the Maine Wire has identified and reported on the locations of hundreds of properties throughout rural Maine suspected of operating as as part of this network of organized crime, more than 30 raids conducted since December.
Throughout this reporting, Gov. Mills and Maine State Police Commissioner Michael Sauschuck have refused to comment on the subject. While every member of Maine’s Congressional Delegation has asked the U.S. Department of Justice multiple times to crack down on the illegal cannabis sites, Mills has yet to comment.
The timing of the 51 Cider Hill property transfer coincides with the days immediately following a massive series of raids on other illegal marijuana growing facilities, including a nearby site at 9 St. Albans Road in Corinna.
(Photos released by the Penobscot Sheriff’s Department)
Whether intentional or not, the gift transfer Paul Mills helped facilitate has the effect of creating legal distance between Ou and whatever illegal activities may be flourishing at the Cider Hill pot grow.
Given that Maine law enforcement has found it impossible to interview the owners of illegal Chinese marijuana grows when they live in New York or Massachusetts, a property owner living in China would never have to fear American law enforcement.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was the owner of the St. Albans Road property before it was sold to “336 Apex LLC” and subsequently became a sophisticated black market marijuana growing and trafficking operation.
According to the Maine Secretary of State’s records, 336 Apex LLC was registered Nov. 18, 2020 to Wen Hui Li, who provided the St. Alban’s road residence as the address for the corporate entity.
At the time Li registered 336 Apex, he listed his address as 113 Cross Road in Stetson.
That property in Stetson belongs to 113 Apple Inc, a Maine-registered LLC with an address at 1521 70th St., #B1, Brooklyn, N.Y.
According to the Maine Secretary of State’s records, 113 Apple Inc was registered in Nov. 2020 under the name of “Larry Zhao.”