10 million plants eradicated in disputed Arvin hemp fields
Kern County sheriff's deputies with state wildlife officers and the FBI served warrants on 11 fields covering 459 acres near Arvin on 25 October 2019, eradicating about 10 million plants they said tested well over the hemp THC limit. The office valued the haul at over $1 billion, a figure hemp experts disputed, saying the dense fields looked like industrial hemp.
🇺🇸 Arvin area, Kern County, California · California, United States
The Kern County Sheriff’s Office, with the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife and the FBI, served search warrants on 11 hemp cultivation fields
covering more than 459 acres near Arvin on 25 October 2019.[1]Narcotics
units seized and eradicated about 10 million marijuana plants, which the office
valued at over $1 billion on the black market.[1]
The office said the gardens were grown under the guise of legitimate hemp
production.[1]Hemp must contain less than 0.3 percent THC, and the office
said preliminary testing showed levels in these fields well over the legal
limit, making the crop cannabis.[1]No arrests were announced, and the
office said the investigation was continuing.[1][2]
Why the figure is disputed
Hemp experts rejected both the classification and the valuation.[2]The
plants grew packed tightly like fibre hemp, not the bushy flowering plants of
drug cannabis, and the photographed crop did not look like smokable hemp
either.[2]At prevailing prices for CBD biomass, even generous assumptions
put the crop near $100 million, far below the claimed billion.[2]The
sheriff’s office did not answer questions about the estimate or the case
after its announcement.[2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
California's Unified Cannabis Enforcement Task Force seized or destroyed 55,308 pounds of illicit cannabis and eradicated 108,226 plants between July and September 2026, Governor Gavin Newsom's office said. The quarter's operations across nine counties led to 14 arrests, nine firearms and $29,215 in cash, and brought the state's nine-month total to more than $230 million in cannabis.
Arrested 14Plants destroyed 108,226Cannabis 25.0873 t
Humboldt County sheriff's deputies eradicated about 3,102 cannabis plants and destroyed about 36 pounds of processed cannabis at two unlicensed grows near Alderpoint and Garberville on 5 and 6 October 2026. No arrests were made and the cases were sent to the District Attorney for review.
On 25 September 2026 New Mexico's Regulation and Licensing Department Enforcement Bureau and the Organized Crime Commission raided 102 Howell Road in Estancia, Torrance County, seizing and destroying about 6,300 mature cannabis plants in 21 greenhouses weighing an estimated 21,000 pounds. The case remains open for prosecution.
On 16 September 2026 U.S. Forest Service officers, Glenn County’s Major Crimes Task Force and a Forest Service helicopter team eradicated about 700 cannabis plants from an illegal grow in remote Mendocino National Forest. No arrests were reported.
