Army finds record 120-hectare marijuana plantation near Ensenada
Soldiers found a 120-hectare marijuana plantation hidden under shade cloth in the Baja California desert on 12 July 2011, the largest ever detected in Mexico. Six suspects were arrested at a checkpoint and troops began burning the crop days later.
🇲🇽 Baja California desert south of Ensenada · Mexico
Soldiers on ground patrol found a 120-hectare marijuana plantation on the floor of the Baja California desert, more than 240 km south of Tijuana, on Tuesday 12 July 2011.[1]The field was hidden under black screen cloth in a huge square, with a dug well and hoses irrigating the crop.[1]About 60 workers fled when the troops arrived, and six suspects were arrested later at a military checkpoint, with no arrests at the scene itself.[1]
The army called it the largest marijuana plantation ever detected in Mexico, four times bigger than the previous record find at a ranch in Chihuahua in 1984.[1]Officers estimated traffickers could have harvested about 120 tons of marijuana worth some 160 million dollars.[1]The army began destroying the plantation that Friday.[2]Days later the army said the plantation belonged to Joaquin Guzman, alias El Chapo, and his Sinaloa cartel.[2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Jalisco state police found a marijuana plot near the El Salvador delegation in Tequila and destroyed about 83,200 cannabis plants by uprooting and burning them. The FGR opened a health-crimes investigation and kept the case open, reporting no detentions.
On 25 October 2026 Jalisco state police, with Defence and National Guard support, found two marijuana plots and a drying shed at San Martín de las Cañas in Tequila, destroyed about 98,000 plants on 22,880 square metres, and valued the crop at 102.9 million pesos.
Mexican navy personnel found and destroyed about 56,000 suspected marijuana plants on five plots covering more than 6,000 square metres in La Yesca, Nayarit, during patrols on 23 and 24 October. The navy did not report any arrests.
On 20, 21 and 22 October 2026 the Mexican navy and the army destroyed about 122,400 marijuana plants on eight plots covering about 14,880 square metres near La Yesca, Nayarit. The statements report no arrests. A separate five-plot destruction in the same municipality on 23 and 24 October is a different event.
