A federal investigation that authorities say started with a dubious report of a carjacking in Baltimore has led to the takedown of 17 people allegedly involved in a nationwide marijuana trafficking organization that laundered its proceeds through China.

The indictments Wednesday followed 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 that someone had shot at him in a carjacking attempt. Officers found his vehicle near Druid Hill Park with the trunk popped. Inside were one garbage bag holding five pounds of marijuana and another with 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 social media photos of himself with stacks of bundled cash and was advertising marijuana for sale on the Telegram social media app. Authorities then set up wiretaps that took them from New York to Oregon.

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

“When violence erupts in our communities, we will track it down to its core. This investigation demonstrates how organized international money laundering drives gun violence and illegal drug trafficking,” said Erek L. Barron, U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland.

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

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

“Xu and his associates work with marijuana sources of supply to obtain bulk quantities of marijuana and then repackage, rebrand and distribute the marijuana to customers for distribution on the east coast,” DEA Special Agent Ryan Welsh wrote in a criminal complaint unsealed Sept. 26. “Xu then collects millions of dollars in drug trafficking proceeds from his customers, which he then turns back over to his suppliers and/or sends to bank accounts located in the People’s Republic of China using wire transfers.”

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 parcels in Oregon that contained over $650,000 in cash. And in September, while tracking a courier, they had him pulled over on Interstate 95 and found “$250,000-$300,000″ in cash.

Also among those charged is Emanuel Dukes, who earlier this year was charged with attempted murder. Detectives sitting at a red light at Greenspring Avenue near Druid Hill Park — not far from where Micklos was shot at in January 2023 — saw Dukes and a bleeding, shirtless man squared off.

When the shirtless man saw the officers, he ran towards them yelling, “Help! Help me! He’s trying to kill me!” He said he had been kidnapped.

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