Brothers fined more than $30K in mega Ottawa County marijuana bust
MIAMI, Okla. – Brothers Michael and Tommy Tran entered no-contest pleas in connection with a Fairland marijuana bust and received deferred sentences.
Both men appeared before Special Judge Becky Baird on Wednesday for their preliminary hearings on illegal drug charges.
Prosecutors Stephanie Tadajewski and Brian Bracher dismissed charges and amended charges which allowed the men to plead no contest to furnishing false or omitting material information on marijuana grow applications.
“Michael and Tommy Tran believed they were operating their businesses legally on the legal advice of their attorney,” said Eddie Wyant, attorney for Tommy Tran.
Wyant said the men relied on their former attorney Matt Stacy to set up the rural Fairland grow operation and to properly instruct them on the proper legal documentation to operate a legal marijuana grow under the umbrella of the Oklahoma Marijuana Authority.
During the raid of the four grow operations located north of Fairland, the men failed to produce proper Medical Marijuana Grow documentation to Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics agents.
Baird sentenced the men to 5-year deferred sentences, fined each $25,000 in addition to almost $6,000 in fines and court costs. Part of the deferred sentences prohibit the men from associating with marijuana grow operations.
“Straw” owners accused of running Fairland marijuana farm
“They believed they complied with all the state policies and their grow operations were functioning properly,” Wyant said.
Investigators said Sang Nguyen was a “straw” owner of the marijuana grows and Tommy Tran, who did not meet the legal requirements to own a grow operation, owned 25% of the four grow operations.
A “straw owner” is a third party used in some transactions to allow the principal parties to accomplish something that is otherwise impermissible.
In a related case, Nguyen, 32, was charged with Tommy Tran in April 2023 in Ottawa County District Court in Miami with furnishing false or fraudulent material information in an application for a license and aggravated manufacture of a controlled dangerous substance, possession of material with intent to manufacture marijuana, both felonies.
An online search shows the case does not exist and no record of charges dismissed.
At the time of the raid, authorities seized between 26,000 to 29,000 marijuana plants and 900 pounds of processed marijuana. Ottawa County Sheriff David Dean said after the arrest the approximate street value of the marijuana seized was around $24 million.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond is prosecuting Stacy on 33 felony drug-related counts ranging from conspiracy to defrauding the state, manufacturing a controlled dangerous substance, trafficking, offering false information and a pattern of criminal offenses.
