A man being shot twice in about a week in February 2023 in Baltimore tipped off a sweeping federal drug investigation that led to the indictments this week of 17 people who authorities say sold massive quantities of marijuana and laundered millions of dollars.

Federal authorities described a wide-reaching conspiracy, alleging members of the drug trafficking organization headed by the man who was shot in Baltimore shipped weed in bulk across the country — from Seattle to Baltimore, Oregon to New York — and sold it in cities up and down the East Coast.

Members of the group also laundered millions of dollars in drug proceeds, including by wiring money to bank accounts in China, according to court papers.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland said in a news release Thursday that the investigation, which began when the man was shot, resulted in the seizure of more than $6 million and 2,000 pounds of marijuana and culminated with the indictments of 17 people Tuesday in Baltimore’s U.S. District Court.

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

Barron credited his office’s partnership with the Drug Enforcement Administration and Department of Homeland Security with securing indictments for those involved on charges of conspiracy to engage in money laundering and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.

Each count carries a maximum of 20 years, though federal prison sentences are usually far less than the maximum.

Two people in the alleged drug organization were charged with possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.

Jarod Forget, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Washington Division, said in a statement that the case shows how his agency uses “collective resources to identify money laundering schemes and drug distribution networks in order to disrupt and dismantle their operations.”

“The increasingly dynamic and complex nature of the illicit drug trade demands enhanced cooperation with local, state and federal partners that reflects the reality of a globalized supply chain for illegal drugs and its transnational money laundering activities,” Forget said. “We will pursue all enablers of these illicit activities by denying the criminal networks of their ill-gotten proceeds and interrupt their ability to transfer working capital to fund their range of illicit activities.”

In an affidavit supporting the charges, a DEA agent described Maryland resident Michael Micklos Jr., the man who was shot, as “the leader and mastermind behind a multi-million dollar marijuana distribution network operating in: Baltimore, Maryland; Richmond, Virginia; the greater New York area; and, Allentown, Pennsylvania.”

The first time Micklos was shot, Baltimore police detectives told DEA agents that they believed it happened during a “drug deal gone bad,” the affidavit said.

That time, detectives recovered over five pounds of marijuana and $100,000 in cash from a rental car Micklos had been riding in.

About a week after the first shooting, Baltimore police responded to the 3800 block of Wabash Ave., in East Arlington, to find Micklos, who had been shot multiple times in the pelvic area, according to the affidavit.

He was taken to University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center “due to the severity of his injuries.”

But at the scene, the DEA agent wrote, “a canvass of the area resulted in investigators recovering multiple pounds of marijuana that Micklos attempted to discard prior to police arrival. Micklos refused to cooperate or provide additional information to detectives during their investigation.”

The affidavit included screen grabs from Micklos’ Instagram account showing him flaunting massive stacks of cash.

In one such post, Micklos, a former Harford County Community College basketball player, wrote, “Getting to it … You don’t know if I trap … or HOOP.”

Attorney Warren Brown, who is representing Micklos, said his client will plead not guilty.

The case involves a marijuana distribution group that “they make a lot of allegations about,” said Brown, referring to federal authorities. “It’s kind of ironic that it’s OK to sell it from the shops, from the dispensaries, but they clamp down on others that are alleged to be selling it. It’s not like it’s fentanyl or cocaine. It’s marijuana.”

Saying neither his client nor anyone else charged was accused of carrying out violence and noting that marijuana is legal in many states, Brown added, “It’s almost like they’re selling cigarettes without the tax.”

Court documents also highlighted Can Quan Xu or “Shawn,” of New York, as a leader of the alleged drug trafficking and “well-structured money laundering organization in which he employs several confederates to conceal the nature, source, location, ownership, or control of the drug proceeds.”

“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,” a DEA agent wrote in an affidavit. “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.”

The DEA agent goes on to describe Xu as the supplier for Micklos.

New York defense attorney John F. Kaley, who is representing Xu, did not respond to a message requesting comment Thursday.

Investigators cracked down on the group by wiretapping several of their phones, which unveiled a series of calculated transactions that crisscrossed the country.

“Ten units has been delivered,” Xu said in one call, according to investigators, who said “units” referred to $10,000 cash.

By listening to their calls, agents also were able to position themselves to observe some of the drug transactions.

In June, investigators traced a large shipment of marijuana from Seattle to Baltimore, according to the affidavit. They watched on June 24 as someone unloaded from a U-Haul truck “multiple cardboard boxes, believed to contain hundreds of pounds of marijuana.”