Gov. Maura Healey says she’s “grateful” for the bust of the alleged network of Chinese grow houses in the Bay State and Maine, as critics accuse Democratic leadership of enabling the operation to run with “impunity.”

Healey, the MassGOP and a state watchdog are weighing in after authorities busted the alleged network of interconnected grow houses that Chinese nationals operated in Massachusetts and Maine to cultivate and distribute marijuana, raking in millions of dollars for personal gain.

Seven Chinese nationals were indicted Tuesday in connection with what the feds have described as a “multi-million-dollar conspiracy” that allegedly included the smuggling of illegal aliens to work at the grow houses scattered across the two states.

“I’m grateful for the work of the Massachusetts State Police’s Special Services Section and our federal and local partners to put an end to this criminal enterprise,” the governor said in a statement shared with the Herald on Wednesday.

“This is a testament to the critical partnership between local, state and federal law enforcement that takes place every day to keep our communities safe,” she added.

Charging documents allege that the network began operating in or around January 2020, with the grow homes found inside single-family properties in Massachusetts and Maine.

Bay State locations included the enterprise’s “base” in Braintree and others in Melrose and Greenfield, according to the federal indictment.

The group allegedly used profits from the marijuana sales, soaring in the millions, to purchase luxury homes, automobiles, jewelry and other items in Massachusetts. Members are also accused of buying real estate with the earnings to further grow and expand marijuana trafficking in the Bay State and elsewhere.

The indictment states that the group allegedly “converted (profits) into financial instruments … that purported to be wages, gift payments and other forms of legitimate income.”

Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Leah Foley, in a statement on Tuesday, accused the defendants of “building a multi-million-dollar black-market operation off the backs of an illegal workforce and using our neighborhoods as cover.”

MassGOP spokesman Mark Seften told the Herald on Wednesday that the state Republican Party “commends” Foley for “acting decisively to bring fugitives to justice who were allowed to operate with impunity under Democratic leadership.”

Each of the seven Chinese nationals behind the operation have been indicted on one count each of conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuana.

Grow house operators allegedly communicated with one another through a list of marijuana cultivators and distributors from or with ties to China in the region, dubbed the “East Coast Contact List.”

Charging documents point to defendant Jianxiong Chen, 39, as being the group’s ringleader. He purchased the Braintree home that served as its “base” in December 2020 for $1.2 million, according to town property records.

The 0.62-acre property is now valued at $1.33 million, records indicate. Chen has also been indicted on one count each of money laundering conspiracy and bringing aliens into the United States, and 11 counts of money laundering.

Defendants Dinghui Li and Dechao Ma, both of Braintree, and Peng Lian Zhu, of Melrose, allegedly acquired kilogram-sized packages of marijuana from Chen and delivered bulk cash back to the ringleader at his residence, according to charging documents.

Li, Ma and Zhu are accused of hiding the marijuana cash coming from and going to Chen’s home “in the engine compartments of automobiles they operated.”

In January 2024, Chen allegedly paid for one illegal alien to be smuggled across the southern border before paying for the alien’s plane ticket to fly from San Diego to Boston the following day. Chen is accused of taking the alien’s Chinese passport after the alien arrived in Massachusetts, keeping it in a safe at the Braintree home, charging documents state.

Between January and October 2024, Chen kept communication with the smuggled alien who worked in one of the several grow homes he controlled in Maine, the indictment alleges.

“Month by month,” the indictment states, “Chen informed the alien how much money the alien had paid toward his debt to Chen for smuggling him into the United States and how much more money the alien needed to pay Chen before the alien’s debt was paid off.”

Last October, authorities found over $270,000 in cash that Chen allegedly possessed either in his house or “in a Porsche registered to him in his driveway, a money counter in his garage, cellular telephones and several Chinese passports and other identification documents found inside a safe.”

The indictment further alleges that the ringleader kept tabs on news articles about grow houses and marijuana seizures in Braintree, Maine and Oklahoma. He would share links to those reports with another defendant, including one to the independent outlet, Maine Wire.

Paul Diego Craney, spokesman for state watchdog Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, blasted state leaders for not taking action to shut down the network without the assistance of federal authorities.

“We’ve now seen this with the feds charging Massachusetts and Boston politicians who are allegedly corrupt,” Craney told the Herald on Wednesday, “and now we are seeing this with very serious organized crime. They deserve a lot of praise, largely because they are doing the job our State House leaders refuse to do.”

In a statement, Massachusetts State Police Col. Geoffrey Noble said his agency shares the “resolve of our federal and local partners to support safer communities across the Commonwealth.”

“Troopers assigned to our Special Services Section used their training and skill in this Operation to respond to the concerns of our neighbors,” Noble stated, “disrupt these illicit growing activities, and improve the quality of life across Massachusetts. Each of these properties can now return to their intended purpose as homes, which our communities desperately need.”