Around 7 a.m. on Tuesday 24 June 2008, about 450 local, state and federal officers executed 29 search warrants in Humboldt and Mendocino counties, capping a two-year investigation into a large commercial marijuana growing and distribution operation centered on a 2,000-acre property in the Lost River area.[1][2] Convoys of as many as 200 vehicles moved through the Emerald Triangle while officers hit sites from Shelter Cove and Garberville to Arcata and northern Mendocino County.[1][2]
Officers located around 10,000 marijuana plants, which officials valued at between $25 million and $60 million on the street, and seized 30 firearms including fully automatic weapons, one vehicle, computers and more than $160,000 in cash.[1] No investigation targets were arrested during the raids, though FBI agents arrested one man for assault on a federal agent while warrants were being served.[1] One cooperative in Arcata was visited and a house in Sunny Brea was raided, where agents took about 35 plants from a medical garden.[2]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Postal Inspection Service joined state agencies including the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting and both counties’ sheriff’s offices in the operation.[2] Officials stressed they were not looking for medical-marijuana gardens or cooperatives but for a for-profit commercial network.[1][2]
