Coast Guard cutter Aspen seizes 8,500 pounds of marijuana off Los Angeles
The Coast Guard cutter Aspen intercepted a panga-style boat piled with marijuana about 160 miles west of Los Angeles on 25 July 2012, seizing about 8,500 pounds. The bust pushed regional waterborne marijuana seizures to the 50-ton milestone for the fiscal year.
🇺🇸 Pacific Ocean, about 160 miles west of Los Angeles · United States
The San Francisco-based Coast Guard cutter Aspen seized approximately 8,500 pounds of marijuana from a vessel on 25 July, about 160 miles west of Los Angeles.[1]The 225-foot buoy tender’s crew had spotted a small panga-style boat piled high with suspicious bales and heading north, and intercepted it to find the marijuana aboard.[1][2]
The July report put the load at more than 340 bales worth about $7.7 million, while the Coast Guard’s later account gave a street value of about $8 million.[1][2]The bust marked a 50-ton milestone for waterborne marijuana seizures in Southern California and the Pacific Southwest border region that fiscal year, with the 50 tons valued at about $90.7 million.[1]Pangas running multi-ton loads of marijuana and migrants north from Baja California had driven a rise in maritime smuggling as far north as Santa Barbara County.[1]
The Los Angeles/Long Beach sector commander said stopping the loads denied trafficking organisations the money feeding wider smuggling, crime and violence.[1]The Coast Guard coordinated the patrols with Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal, state and local agencies, alongside Mexican counterparts.[1]
Case data
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A 70-year-old man was arrested and booked into jail after Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board officers and Snohomish County deputies searched a property near Monroe on 6 November 2026. Investigators seized approximately 2,700 live and dried marijuana plants from what they described as an unlicensed cannabis production operation.
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