California CAMP seized nearly a million plants in the 2022 season
Attorney General Rob Bonta said the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting eradicated nearly a million illegally grown plants and seized more than 200,000 pounds of processed cannabis in 449 operations during the 2022 season, recovering 184 weapons. The seasonal program becomes the year-round EPIC task force.
🇺🇸 California (26 counties) · California, United States
On 11 October 2022 Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that California’s Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) had eradicated nearly a million illegally grown cannabis plants during the 2022 season, along with more than 200,000 pounds (about 90.7 tonnes) of processed cannabis.[1][2]CAMP teams conducted 449 operations across 26 counties, recovering 184 weapons and removing nearly 67,000 pounds of cultivation infrastructure such as dams, water lines and toxic chemicals.[1][2]
Mendocino County had the largest haul with 190,018 plants at 18 sites, followed by Riverside with 159,287 plants at 77 sites and San Bernardino with 138,815 plants at 41 sites.[1][2]Teams also worked in Lake, Kern, Siskiyou, Trinity, Monterey and eighteen other counties, with Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz limited to reconnaissance.[1]
From seasonal raids to a year-round task force
Bonta said illegal grows undercut the state’s legal market and damage public lands with banned pesticides such as carbofuran, and announced that the 13-week seasonal program would become the year-round Eradication and Prevention of Illicit Cannabis (EPIC) task force.[1][2]The new task force pairs the justice department with federal land agencies to pursue civil and criminal cases over the environmental, economic and labor harms of unlicensed cultivation.[1][2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The attorney general announced "nearly one million" plants without an exact total; the report records 973,984 as the sum of the county breakdown in the release.
The announcement reports no arrests for the 2022 season.
The 184 seized weapons are mentioned in the text but the figures schema stores no weapon count.
The 13-week operation ran through the summer; 11 October is the announcement date.
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.
