Federal Police burn 357,500 cannabis plants in Álamos, Sonora
Federal Police officers found and incinerated three cannabis plantations in the municipality of Álamos, Sonora, destroying about 357,500 plants weighing an estimated 88,500 kilograms and covering some 24,500 square metres. In the same operation they beat down about 40,000 poppy plants on a nearby 5,000-square-metre plot and gave samples to the federal prosecutor's office; no arrests were reported.
Federal Police officers found and burned three cannabis plantations in the
municipality of Álamos, in the mountains of Sonora, and about 357,500 marijuana
plants were destroyed by incineration on them.[1]
The three cannabis plots covered an area of about 24,500 square metres.[1]The
incinerated cannabis plants weighed an estimated 88,500 kilograms, the
equivalent of the 88 tonnes the police announced.[1]While inspecting the
area, the officers found another plot of about 5,000 square metres holding some
40,000 poppy plants, which they destroyed by beating them down (vareo).[1]
The operation followed desk and field investigative work and tactical
overflights, after which officers moved in overland into the sierra.[1]
Officers took representative samples for investigation and handed them to the
federal public prosecutor’s office, and the bulletin names no arrests.[1]
The federal Security Secretariat published the account as bulletin 203/19 on 9
March 2019.[1]
Photos and video
Lead photograph published with the Security Secretariat's bulletin 203/19 on the Alamos plantations, captioned only with the headline; no credit is given.Photo details
The bulletin does not give a separate date for the operation; 9 March 2019 is the date of the statement and of El Universal's publication, and is used as the incident date.
The bulletin calls the figure of 88,500 kilograms a "peso aproximado" and elsewhere gives the load as "más de 88 toneladas"; the exact measured weight is not reported.
The 2.45 hectares in the figures cover only the three cannabis plots of about 24,500 square metres; the separate 5,000-square-metre poppy plot is not counted because it is not cannabis.
Illegal poppy plants (amapola) are reported in the same operation; they are described here but excluded from all figures.
The 357,500 plant count and the 88,500 kilograms are police estimates of what was destroyed, not a weighed or laboratory-verified total.
No arrests, charges or court outcome are reported; the bulletin only says samples were handed to the federal public prosecutor.
El Universal adds that officers rendered about 5 kilometres of poppy plants, an area measure that conflicts with the bulletin's 5,000 square metres; the bulletin's figure is used.
The two photographs published with the bulletin carry no descriptive captions or credits, so it cannot be confirmed which plot or plants each shows.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in El Universal: El Universal reported that the Regional Security Division of the Federal Police found and destroyed three plantations holding more than 88 tonnes of marijuana and 40,000 poppy plants in Álamos.
Jalisco state police found a marijuana plot near the El Salvador delegation in Tequila and destroyed about 83,200 cannabis plants by uprooting and burning them. The FGR opened a health-crimes investigation and kept the case open, reporting no detentions.
On 25 October 2026 Jalisco state police, with Defence and National Guard support, found two marijuana plots and a drying shed at San Martín de las Cañas in Tequila, destroyed about 98,000 plants on 22,880 square metres, and valued the crop at 102.9 million pesos.
Mexican navy personnel found and destroyed about 56,000 suspected marijuana plants on five plots covering more than 6,000 square metres in La Yesca, Nayarit, during patrols on 23 and 24 October. The navy did not report any arrests.
On 20, 21 and 22 October 2026 the Mexican navy and the army destroyed about 122,400 marijuana plants on eight plots covering about 14,880 square metres near La Yesca, Nayarit. The statements report no arrests. A separate five-plot destruction in the same municipality on 23 and 24 October is a different event.
