Big Island police uproot 14,425 marijuana plants; Mountain View grower held
Hawaii County vice officers destroyed 14,425 marijuana plants in a five-day sweep ending 28 June 2002 in Puna, Hilo and North Hilo, and arrested Lenora Aitcheson, 46, after finding 911 plants at her Mountain View home. Police said they would seek federal prosecution because of the scale of her indoor and outdoor grow.
🇺🇸 Puna, Hilo and North Hilo, Hawaii Island; Mountain View (arrest) · Hawaii, United States
Hilo Vice Section officers destroyed 14,425 marijuana plants, from seedlings to
six feet tall, in a five-day eradication effort that ended on Friday 28 June
2002 in Puna, Hilo and North Hilo.[1]Lieutenant Henry Tavares said the count
was a significant increase over a three-day May operation that removed 2,973
plants.[1]
Arrest at Mountain View
Officers arrested Lenora Aitcheson, 46, of Mountain View, about 10 a.m. that
Friday after finding 911 plants on her property and inside her house.[1]She
was held in the Hilo police cellblock pending charges.[1]Tavares said police
hoped to obtain federal prosecution because of the large indoor and outdoor
operation.[1]On 2 July, vice officers turned her over to federal drug agents
for that purpose.[2]
Tavares attributed the high plant count to the growing season and said mature
taller plants were easier to spot from helicopters at 1,000 feet.[1]The
Advertiser reported that, besides Aitcheson’s 911 plants, police uprooted more
than 13,500 other plants in the same districts during the sweep.[2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The Honolulu Advertiser reported that more than 13,500 plants were uprooted outside Aitcheson’s property during the same sweep; the police release gives one combined total of 14,425 for the operation.
Neither opened report states a weight in kilograms or says whether federal charges were in fact filed.
No photograph of the June 2002 sweep was found on the opened pages.
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.
