Senator Attacks Marijuana Banking Bill At Hearing On Chinese Money Laundering [Video]

During a congressional hearing on Chinese money laundering and “cleaning cartel cash” on Tuesday—a meeting that focused mostly on the topic of fentanyl—Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) spoke out against a congressional bill that would ease access to banking services for state-legal marijuana businesses, pointing to a deadly 2022 shooting at a cannabis facility that involved people who “were all from China,” the senator said.

Grassley showed members of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control a video of law enforcement responding to the incident, which occurred at what he described as a “fraudulently registered medical marijuana farm in Kingfisher County, Oklahoma.” The shooter, Chen Wu, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in February.

“Inside, four workers were packaging marijuana, supervised by their boss who, like Wu, they were all from China,” Grassley said. “Wu waved a nine-millimeter pistol as he entered the garage and demanded back pay. He …