If you ask me, the next season of HBO’s hit-or-miss anthology series True Detective should be set in Oklahoma.
From corrupt cops and powerful prison gangs to deranged rednecks and perverted preachers to shady race tracks and tribal slot machine casinos, we have all the character and plot line ingredients necessary for a compelling and realistic production that’s ripe with deviance, criminality and corruption.
In addition to that, we also have new criminal enterprises to fill a sub-plot line – the powerful and violent Chinese mafia organizations that control our state’s lucrative black market marijuana trade!
In case you didn’t see it, The Frontier and Propublica profiled the Chinese criminal underworld that set up shop in our state to take advantage of our lax marijuana laws.
It’s a deep, thorough, and very entertaining long-read that investigates how Chinese crime syndicates forced their way into the Oklahoma marijuana ecosystem, the murderous people who are a part of it, and what Oklahoma’s law enforcement complex is doing to combat it.
I found the story – which will probably win an award or two – pretty interesting.