For the first time in more than a year, federal authorities have indicted the alleged owner of an illegal cannabis grow house in Maine.

Yiwen Zhen, 39, of Boston, faces two charges of wire fraud related to the purchase of a home in Dixfield that was later used as an illegal marijuana growing operation.

Zhen, who lives in Boston, sought a $250,000 loan to purchase the single family home at 142 Porter Road. She told the lender she intended to occupy the house as her primary residence. Instead, federal prosecutors allege, she converted the home into a massive clandestine cannabis growing operation.

“After closing on the property, (Zhen) continued to live and work in Massachusetts,” the indictment reads. “The defendant rented to tenants, who used the Dixfield Property to illegally cultivate and manufacture marijuana.”

A Maine law firm “offered real estate closing services” to Zhen, prosecutors allege, though the indictment does not name the firm in question.

K. Alexander Visbaras, a Lewiston attorney, signed Zhen’s mortgage on the property, documents from the Oxford County Registry of Deeds show. Visbaras could not be reached for comment and his law office was dissolved in 2024. Its phone numbers and emails have since been disconnected.

Zhen’s property was searched last year by Oxford County sheriff’s deputies and federal law enforcement. They found nearly 25 pounds of processed cannabis, more than 1,600 plants and elaborate growing systems inside. No arrests were made, as no one was inside at the time.

Oxford County Sheriff Christopher Wainright described the conditions inside the house as horrible.

As with many of Maine’s illegal grows, the house was filled with black mold. The workers’ living quarters were sparse, limited to a mattress on the floor in a corner of the house. Illegal pesticides manufactured in China but banned for use in the U.S. were found inside too, Wainright said.

“The grow was done efficiently to maximize space, but it was awful inside,” he said Monday.

Zhen is the first person to face federal charges relating to an illegal Maine cannabis grow since March last year. The indictment, filed May 20, is the first new grow house case brought by Andrew Benson since he was appointed as Maine’s new U.S. Attorney last year.

Benson’s office declined to comment on Zhen’s case beyond what was made publicly available in federal court documents.

Over the last five years, organized criminal groups with links to China have found fertile ground for black market cannabis cultivation in Maine. Hundreds of similar growing facilities, hidden inside the walls of rural single family homes, have sprung up across the state.

More than 60 such properties have been searched by law enforcement since 2023, and over 30 people have been arrested for their connections to the grow operations.

Zhen is a naturalized U.S. citizen, according to federal court paperwork. She faces up to 20 years in prison and as much as $250,000 in fines if found guilty.

Zhen is one of about 10 alleged illicit growers to face a federal indictment for their connection to illegal grows. All the charges pertained to allegedly owning a grow house or purchasing them through bank fraud. The federal government has moved to seize several houses converted by Chinese nationals into large-scale illegal grows.

It’s unclear whether prosecutors seek to do the same with Zhen’s property in Dixfield. Records with the Oxford County Registry of Deeds show she sold the property in November last year, just a few months after law enforcement’s search of the house.