Organized crime related to drugs and marijuana remains one of his biggest challenges, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond told the Tulsa Regional Chamber on Friday morning.
“We have opened the flood gates to organized crime,” Drummond said. “We have a true Chinese syndicate crime organization in eastern Oklahoma. We have two identified Mexican cartels. We have a Central American cartel. We have, in the last six months, been invaded by organized crime from eastern Europe.”
These operations, Drummond said, revolve around distribution networks moving not only marijuana grown under the guise of medical cannabis but also fentanyl and other more dangerous substances, as well as human beings being trafficked as sex workers and laborers.
“Just two weeks ago, we intercepted a van that was redecorated to be (an Amazon) semi,” Drummond said. “It was, in fact, an illicit semi, and we found 7,000 pounds (of cannabis) in it. If we took the DNA of the cannabis consumed in New York City this morning, over 40% would be grown in Oklahoma.
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“We are a top 10 state, and we can’t be a top 10 state in this area,” he said.
Drummond said combating these organizations is “tougher” in the eastern half of the state.
“If I can do nothing else in my 193 remaining weeks (as attorney general), it will be that — to give organized crime a compelling reason to (leave).”
Drummond turned philosophical near the end of his remarks. Paraphrasing Milton Mayer’s “They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945,” he reflected on that country’s gradual shift to authoritarianism during that period.
“Over time (Germans) winced and shuddered and turned another eye as they lost their soul,” he said. “We are better than our worst impulses. My challenge to you is: Let’s do the right thing, every chance we get.”
Drummond’s remarks came ahead of those of several lawmakers who are trying to figure out how to do that in a legislative session that’s turned stranger than usual in the past few days.
Four first-year lawmakers described their introductions to “sausage-making,” as one called it, while one House member who’s been around a while used the few minutes allotted to him to argue against elements of the competing education packages pushed by Gov. Kevin Stitt and House and Senate leadership.
Rep. John Waldron, D-Tulsa, said even those behind taxpayer subsidization of private schools agree that the current tax credit proposal will not lead to a large enrollment shift from public to private schools — by some estimates about 1% — and thus will not really broaden school choice.
He also mentioned a House leadership plan to distribute $300 million in new money using a formula that intentionally sends a disproportionate share to smaller districts at the expense of most Tulsa-area districts.
“All of these budget maneuvers and education battles will probably be decided by the four leaders in the two chambers, none of whom are from Tulsa,” Waldron said.
“This is what concerns me,” he said. “Are we going to be locked out of the room when these decisions are made?”
"If the state of Oklahoma remains in the business of killing monsters, we must be righteous about every aspect of that process," independent counsel Rex Duncan said.
