NAVAJO NATION (KRQE) – A massive drug-running operation, running afoul of state, federal, and tribal law. Now the man the feds say is responsible for a “brazen criminal enterprise” is behind bars after the latest raid targeting illegal pot-growing operations in New Mexico, and the investigation dates years back.
A man who once ran for president of the Navajo Nation is now in federal custody after an investigation spanning more than five years, and dozens of marijuana farms across New Mexico. The claims are wide-ranging, from drug trafficking to diverting waterways and even employing slave labor to maximize profits.
KRQE is now learning of raids of two farms near Estancia last week, which were part of the latest investigation into Dineh Benally. “Something we’ve been working on for several months from the FBI perspective with our partners,” says Raul Bujanda, FBI special agent in charge.
According to federal court documents, the FBI started investigating Benally and his father Donald Benally in 2019 for growing operations in the Shiprock area. At the time, New Mexico’s cannabis laws were more restrictive than they are today.
Recreational use was not yet legal but the feds say Benally claimed it was his sovereign right to grow cannabis – a religious sacrament, he said, for native people. The Navajo Nation disagreed and attempted to shut down Benally’s operations in 2020 by getting a court injunction to stop him from growing on tribal land.
But, according to court records, Benally kept growing.
In the following months, the FBI stepped in, raiding 25 farms around Shiprock, uncovering more than 1,100 grow houses, 260,000 live plants, and 60,000 pounds of packaged pot. The FBI also found evidence the farms employed Chinese workers who were paid little to nothing kept in substandard living conditions, and were also used as drug mules.
Then there was the environmental impact of the operation with investigators uncovering unauthorized wells tapping the San Juan River, as well as dams made of sandbags to harness river water for irrigation. But shutting down those farms, according to the US attorney, did not stop Benally from staying in business.
On Friday, the FBI descended on the two farms outside Estancia, which started as legal operations, but as a Larry Barker investigation last year revealed, state regulators revoked their licenses after finding they were violating state laws.
Now those farms are shut down and piles and piles of pot have been seized. “A lot of this is under court order, some people also were arrested,” says Special Agent Bujanda.
Benally is facing six federal counts related to drug manufacturing and trafficking as well as polluting waterways.