32,840 illegal cannabis plants eradicated in Blake Mountain raids
Humboldt County deputies served 10 warrants in the Blake Mountain area on 10-12 August 2020, eradicating about 32,840 unpermitted cannabis plants and seizing over 12,000 pounds of dried cannabis and eight firearms. No arrests were made; the cases went to the district attorney.
🇺🇸 Blake Mountain area, Eastern Humboldt County, California · California, United States
From 10 to 12 August 2020, deputies with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Marijuana Enforcement Team served 10 search warrants against illegal cannabis cultivation in the Blake Mountain area of Eastern Humboldt County.[1][2]The California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Cal Cannabis and county code enforcement assisted in the operation.[1][2]None of the investigated parcels held the county permit and state licence needed to grow cannabis commercially.[1][2]
During the warrants deputies eradicated about 32,840 growing cannabis plants and seized and destroyed over 12,372 pounds of dried cannabis and over 3,558 pounds of manicured bud, together roughly 7.23 tonnes.[1][2]They also seized eight firearms.[1][2]Eighteen people were detained and released for officer safety, but no arrests were made, and the cases were forwarded to the district attorney for review.[1][2]Assisting agencies recorded 26 stream diversion violations and 17 water pollution violations, with further civil fines expected.[1][2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Plants destroyed
32,840
Cannabis
7.22573 t
Agency type
Police
Cannabis
Herbal cannabis (7.22573 t); Living plants (32,840 plants)
Lost Coast Outpostlostcoastoutpost.comOver 30,000 Unpermitted Cannabis Plants Destroyed in Three-Day Raid in the Blake Mountain Area, Sheriff's Office Says
Open questions the AI reported
Both opened reports reproduce the sheriff's release, so no independent account of the operation was available.
The 12,372 pounds of dried cannabis and 3,558 pounds of manicured bud are recorded together as destroyed cannabis without guessing how the two categories overlap.
Eighteen people were detained and released for officer safety; none was arrested or named.
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.
