SHIPROCK, N.M. (KRQE) – A New Mexico man who was charged with growing a large amount of marijuana illegally has pleaded guilty to federal charges. Dineh Benally was accused of creating more than 30 farms on Navajo Nation land that covered more than 400 acres. To fund the operation, Benally and other co-conspirators created front companies to get funding from Chinese investors. Those investors were charged cash fees for fake cannabis grow licenses. They were also told they were for hemp, not marijuana, and had to pay the co-conspirators a part of the harvest.

The grow operation built more than 1,100 greenhouses and employed local Navajo Nation workers and Chinese foreign laborers, which included undocumented immigrants.

Benally was accused of creating an illegal sandbag dam on the San Jua

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