The most recent meeting of Tulsa’s longest running (36 years) breakfast discussion group, featured Gentner Drummond who outlined his background, current role as Oklahoma’s Attorney General, his candidacy for governor, and general policy priorities directing his public service. AG Drummond also welcomed complex audience questions.
Host Jon M. McGrath introduced fifty-four attendees including special quests from industry, civic groups, tribal governments, state and local elected officials, candidates, and invited media. The audience included former-Interim President of the Pawnee Nation Business Council, Charles Lone Chief as a most honored guest.
Drummond emphasized building state-tribal partnerships, combating organized crime in illegal marijuana operations, improving education, workforce development (especially trades), and prosecuting corruption.
Drummond was raised in Osage County; oldest of his generation among 65 cousins; his family has lived in Oklahoma since 1892, originally in the Osage Nation. He attended Harmony High School, Oklahoma State University and served as a fighter pilot in the Gulf War.
His entrepreneurial efforts in banking, law, ranching, wireless retail, title and abstract companies, and a retreat center supported 900 private-sector employees prior to election to public office.
His public career launched after his six children were all out of college and married. He is proud of his seven grandchildren and suggested, with a smile, that “likely five more in the near future.” He is 62 years old.
Drummond spoke about State and Tribal relations.
Current landscape and issues
Oklahoma has 39 sovereign tribal governments; the state has been fighting with tribes for seven years [much longer, if other administrations are counted], which Drummond believes should turn into uniting and partnering.
If considered as corporations, tribal entities would equate to several Fortune 500/1000 scale operations.
Drummond has built bridges in Native American criminal justice—his current lane—and envisions broader economic collaboration as governor.
Proposed criminal justice and healthcare partnership framework
First-quarter plan: Partner with tribes—e.g., Cherokee Nation—to let the State of Oklahoma prosecute Cherokee citizens in the name of the Cherokee Nation using state courts, prosecutors, and public defenders, operating fee-for-service.
Tribes (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw) own three major hospitals in the Southwest region; partnership would allow broader access, with tribes providing healthcare while the state provides criminal justice services.
Goal to improve healthcare deliverables, mental health outcomes, and education where Oklahoma currently ranks near the bottom.
Tribal economic capacity and vision
Cherokee Nation reported net of $4.3 billion and operates companies in seven states.
Drummond questions why the state isn’t partnering more deeply with tribes in ventures (referencing “chicken sauce, the chocolate”), advocating joint development and respect-based collaboration.
Challenges with specific tribal jurisdictions
Muscogee (Creek) jurisdiction is described as the most difficult regarding prosecution referral and transparency; Cherokee and Choctaw/Chickasaw are noted as better but still needing improvement.
Emphasizes trust-building and compacts led by the governor; legislature can override governors (e.g., tobacco compacts) but effective compacts require an engaged governor.
Since 2023, AG Drummond’s organized crime task force has shut down about 1,000 illegal grow facilities, reduced licensed facilities to around 2,500, and recently led multi-state arrests of a large, syndicated crime organization.
He discussed law enforcement operations and complex settlements with major poultry integrators to reduce watershed pollution. He detailed actions involving the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority (OTA) pending a February audit. Questions from the audience delved into many current controversies.
One attendee asked, “How long will it take the largest law organization in Oklahoma to bring charges against the Tulsa Public School District and their vendors or consultants for defrauding [by around $66 million] our students and teachers? We know you’re investigating, but when will you be finished?”
Drummond said, “I ordered my audit from Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd and I now have the data. I know the statute of limitations is quickly approaching. I’ve put [the facts] to my multi-county grand jury. I’m not going to speak in detail, but you can anticipate charges before the statute of limitations expires in June.”
Another questioned, “How can Oklahoma stop illegal Chinese drug operations in our state?”
Drummond answered, “Here’s the break down. I’ve been Attorney General during the Biden and the Trump administration. The first two years as Attorney General under Biden, we would go to Grove, for example, and detain 18 to 20 Chinese, but not the guys in charge. These guys are just working in the marijuana industry but not owning it, they’re not breaking the law. We would detain them. We would call ICE, and say, hey, we’ve got these 18 guys in Yale, Oklahoma. Can you tell us where to deliver them? We’ll do that. They said, no. Give them a card. Tell them to go to Kansas City or Dallas to process within the next week.
“Well, the next week, we’d be 10 miles down the road and see the same guys, week after week after week. I knew them by first name. It was so frustrating.
“Trump comes in, like him or not, I don’t care. He came in and said, shut the border down. So now we deport those 20 and they’re not coming back in. We are having great success. It’s great to have a federal partnership and an administration that empowers us to get the bad guys out,” Drummond added.
A follow-up question dug deeper, “How are they banking their money and who is a part of that in Oklahoma?”
AG Drummond said, “It is convoluted and sophisticated. Our tribal partners were money laundering for the first couple years of our administration. They didn’t realize that Chinese guys would go into a casino with a lot of cash and play a couple of games, but they were really just exchanging cash for the tokens. Then they walk out with the tokens, and transfer those out of the state.
“Our partners in the casino now understand this and are giving us a heads up. We get a call and they say, ‘we got Ben Lee with $20,000 in cash, and we anticipate him exiting the casino in the next 15 minutes,’ Drummond declared. “My men will be there. They’re laundering money through any source that they can.
“The banks that do marijuana banking, and I do that. My bank does that, and here’s why: For honest mom-and-pop operations in Oklahoma.
“I’ve been criticized by one of the candidates that said, oh, Drummond’s a money-laundering guy. Let me explain. The State of Oklahoma legalized medical marijuana in 2018. I’ve never spoken about it, but the people of Oklahoma legalized it. We were sold a bill of goods, but it doesn’t matter. It’s now our law.
“Mom-and-pop, who are doing it right, have a competitive disadvantage because of the illegals who are doing it at a much lower cost. But both were keeping their cash in cinder block buildings and just paying for everything with cash.
“[As a result] the State of Oklahoma decided that banks should handle the money to be able to document it. Only about 1 of every 15 applicants to my bank qualify to have a deposit account. We use the FBI and we’d check everything. We go visit the sites and make sure these are legit. It’s about $25 million in deposits. And there’s another dozen banks that do that.
“Banks, that do understand the law, know we’ve got to have an honest way for that money to get into the community to help all of us. I’m an economist by training. Cash in your pocket is money-one. The [local] bank is money-two because it gets circulated through [local communities]. And money-three is food, retail, and restaurants like this that are serving us today. We need that cash [to circulate locally],” Attorney General Gentner Drummond added.
Another questioned if Drummond will continue Governor Stitt’s program of taking illegal big-rig commercial drivers in 80,000 pound trucks going 80 mph just feet away from Oklahoma families off the road?
“California keeps issuing drivers licenses to damn near anybody. We have a problem with that interstate traffic so [Gov. Kevin Stitt] got that right and we are going to continue the inspections. If drivers are illegal, they should drive around, not through, Oklahoma,” Drummond declared.
The talk closed with Attorney General Drummond’s commitment to provide transparent, principled leadership as the next Oklahoma Governor.
About the author: David Arnett’s beginning in print journalism was not planned in 1985 but covered by Rebecca Martin writing for the Columbia Journalism Review in 1987. After 11 years in print, he established TulsaToday online in 1996 and Straight Up on Substack in 2022 providing email subscriptions to the latest news and opinion.
Thank you for reading. Your comments are welcome below and/or by email.
How about putting the stop on any further steps to legalize sports gambling.
https://v1sut.substack.com/p/return-of-public-ed-deep-state-part-477
Too bad you can't obtain any documents as to how our AG is actually working the cannabis money through his bank. When his actions fall under an open records requests, things tend to be provably shady. His latest moves in education are endangering OK kids.