Benally pleaded guilty to several charges, including two charges of violating the Clean Water Act (CWA) for illegally discharging pollutants into the San Juan River (33 U.S.C. § 1319(c)(2)(A)) and smuggling undeclared pesticides into the United States (18 U.S.C. § 545).
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Photo: Courtesy
Cover Photo Caption: River illegally dammed for marijuana irrigation.
On September 23, Dineh Benally pleaded guilty to operating a vast illegal marijuana cultivation and distribution ring spanning several years that exploited workers and polluted the San Juan River on tribal lands. Benally pleaded guilty to several charges, including two charges of violating the Clean Water Act (CWA) for illegally discharging pollutants into the San Juan River (33 U.S.C. § 1319(c)(2)(A)) and smuggling undeclared pesticides into the United States (18 U.S.C. § 545). Dineh Benally is scheduled for sentencing on December 22, 2025. Co-defendants Donald Benally and Irving Lin are scheduled for trial on March 9, 2026.
Between January 2018 to November 2020, Benally and his co-conspirators established more than 30 marijuana farms, covering 400 acres, on land obtained from Navajo Nation members. To fund this illegal enterprise, Benally and a co-conspirator traveled to California and created front companies to solicit Chinese investors. These investors were charged cash fees ranging from $20,000 to $50,000 for counterfeit cannabis cultivation licenses. They were also deceived into believing they were growing legal hemp, not marijuana, and were required to pay the co-conspirators a percentage of the profit made from the harvest.
The operation involved the construction of more than 1,100 greenhouses. The defendants employed both local Navajo workers and Chinese foreign laborers, some of whom were undocumented immigrants, to grow, cultivate, and transport marijuana out of New Mexico.
Dineh Benally was also responsible for constructing an illegal sandbag dam on the San Juan River. Workers dumped sand, rocks, and agricultural waste into the river to divert water to use for irrigation. This unpermitted discharge of pollutants into a federally protected waterway is a violation of the CWA.
Law enforcement shut down the operation in November 2020, after confiscating approximately 260,000 marijuana plants and 60,000 pounds of processed marijuana.
Dineh Benally went back into business starting in January 2022, initiating a new illegal marijuana grow operation near Estancia, New Mexico. Benally initially received a state license to grow marijuana. However, state inspectors identified uncontrolled pest infestations, a lack of quality controls, and other violations that led authorities to revoke his license in December 2023 and impose a $1 million fine. Benally continued the operation in defiance of the cease-and-desist order, going so far as to tamper with a utility meter to steal electricity.
On January 23, 2025, a joint federal and state law enforcement operation raided two additional marijuana farms linked to Dineh Benally near Estancia. The raid, which also involved a search of his residence, uncovered approximately 8,500 pounds of marijuana, $35,000 in cash, illegal pesticides, methamphetamine, and firearms.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation, with assistance from the following agencies: the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service, and the Navajo Nation Police Department, the Torrance County Sheriff’s Office, the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office, the Valencia County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Border Patrol, Homeland Security Investigations, and the New Mexico State Police.