Former Harford County basketball player suspected mastermind of US-Chinese drug ring

A federal investigation that authorities say began with a questionable report of a carjacking in Baltimore has led to the arrests of 17 people allegedly involved in a nationwide marijuana trafficking organization that laundered its profits via China.

Wednesday’s indictments follow a joint investigation between the Baltimore field offices of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.

Police didn’t believe Michael Micklos Jr. in January 2023 when he reported someone shot him during an attempted carjacking. Officers found his vehicle near Druid Hill Park with the trunk open. Inside was a trash bag containing five pounds of marijuana and another containing more than $100,000 in cash.

A week later, Micklos was the victim of a shooting, this time in Northwest Baltimore, and police again found several pounds of marijuana nearby.

Investigators learned that Micklos had uploaded photos of himself on social media with piles of cash and that he was advertising the sale of marijuana on the social media app Telegram. The authorities then set up wiretaps that took them from New York to Oregon.

During the ensuing investigation, authorities seized 2,000 pounds of marijuana and intercepted more than $6 million in cash.

“When violence breaks out in our communities, we will track it to its origins. This investigation demonstrates how organized international money laundering fuels gun violence and illegal drug trafficking,” said Erek L. Barron, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland.

Micklos, 27, who once played basketball at Harford Community College, is accused of being “the leader and mastermind of a multi-million dollar marijuana distribution ring” operating in Baltimore, Richmond, the greater New York area and in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Authorities say he worked with another New York-based multimillionaire marijuana distributor, Can Quan Xu, who also ran a well-structured money laundering organization.

“Xu and his associates work with marijuana supply sources to obtain large quantities of marijuana, then repackage, rebrand, and distribute the marijuana to customers for distribution on the East Coast,” the special agent wrote of the DEA, Ryan Welsh, in a criminal complaint unsealed September 26. “Xu then collects millions of dollars from drug trafficking from his clients, which he then returns to his suppliers and/or sends to bank accounts located in the People’s Republic of China via wire transfer.”

In March, agents tracking members of the conspiracy to Washington, D.C. stopped a vehicle and found $170,000 in cash. In July, they intercepted shipping packages in Oregon containing more than $650,000 in cash. And in September, while tracking a courier, he had him stopped on Interstate 95 and found “between $250,000 and $300,000” in cash.

Those charged also include Emanuel Dukes, who was charged earlier this year with attempted murder. Detectives sitting at a red light on Greenspring Avenue near Druid Hill Park — not far from where Micklos was shot to death in January 2023 — saw Dukes and a shirtless, bloodied man confront each other.

When the shirtless man saw the police officers, he ran towards them shouting: “Help!” Help me! He’s trying to kill me! He said he was kidnapped.

Micklos was released to home detention in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia. Xu was released in New York on $100,000 bail. In Washington state, another alleged plot member, Qihai Tao, was taken into custody because the judge determined his ties to China made him a flight risk and authorities found a ghost gun during his arrest.