Support for this podcast comes from the New Bauer Family Foundation, supporting W

HYY's Fresh Air and its commitment to sharing ideas and encouraging meaningful

conversation. This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. When states started

legalizing marijuana, one of the hopes was that it would cut down on crime

because people could buy it legally from licensed sellers. But in some states, including Oklahoma,

legalization inadvertently helped organize crime, especially the Chinese mafia,

exploit new opportunities.

Chinese organized crime has come to dominate much of the illicit marijuana trade in the nation,

from California to Maine, according to a new series of investigative reports by a team of four journalists from two

nonprofit news organizations, ProPublica and the Oklahoma-based The Frontier.

My guest Sebastian Rotella is the lead reporter on this series.

For several years he's been investigating Chinese organized crime in the U.S. Europe and

Latin America.

He's reported on the connection between Chinese organized crime

and China's authoritarian government

and how that relationship is helping China

expand its influence and power around the world.

Rotella worked for almost 23 years for the Los Angeles Times before joining ProPublica in 2010.

He covers international security issues including

terrorism, intelligence, organized crime, human rights, and migration. Part one of

the new series focuses on Chinese organized crimes grip on America's illegal marijuana market,

which has led to increases in other crimes including money laundering.

...