Texas wardens destroy 6,500-plant marijuana farm on public reserve
Texas game wardens destroyed more than 6,500 mature marijuana plants worth an estimated 6 million dollars in a remote swampy camp on the Cooper Wildlife Management Area in northeast Texas. The growers were never found, and an extensive multi-agency search made no arrests.
🇺🇸 Cooper Wildlife Management Area, Delta and Hopkins counties, Texas · Texas, United States
Public hunters pursuing feral hogs stumbled on a sophisticated marijuana growing camp on the Cooper Wildlife Management Area over the opening weekend of the season.[1][2]The 14,480-acre public reserve sits about 70 miles northeast of Dallas.[1][2]Alerted by the hunters, Texas game wardens led a multi-agency investigation of the well-established site tucked in a remote swampy area.[1]
Wardens found more than 6,500 mature plants with an estimated street value of more than 6 million dollars.[1][2]The camp held tents, farming tools, fertilizer, a generator and water-pump irrigation equipment, indicating the operation had run for some time.[1][2]Captain Steve Stapleton said the camp sat at least a mile from any road in harsh conditions and that its crew had clearly spent day and night there.[1][2]
An extensive air-and-ground search by game wardens, the Delta and Hopkins county sheriff’s offices, prison tracking dogs and state troopers netted no arrests.[1]Officials destroyed all the marijuana on site and seized the property and equipment.[1]Warden Chris Fried called the habitat destruction the worst part: mature hardwoods cut down, parts of a levee cleared, and insecticides and pesticides left to run off into streams.[1]
Photos and video
A Texas game warden cuts down tall marijuana plants at the Cooper Wildlife Management Area camp.Photo details
The growers found the camp over the opening weekend of teal and feral-hog season, so the exact days of discovery and destruction are unknown and 14 September stands in for the incident date.
No suspects were found and no arrests were made, so who ran the camp is unknown.
The plants were destroyed on site, so no dried weight was published.
The wardens described lasting damage from cut hardwoods, a cleared levee and pesticide contamination, with no remediation reported in the opened sources.
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.
Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies eradicated about 720 marijuana plants at an illegal creekside greenhouse grow near Mt. Hamilton Road in September 2026. No suspects were found at the remote site, where officers also reported illegal water diversion from a nearby creek.
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.
