11,260 cannabis plants eradicated in Tuolumne raid
The state's new cannabis task force served nine warrants in rural Jupiter on 4 October 2022, eradicating 11,260 plants and destroying 5,237 pounds of processed flower. The haul was valued at more than 15 million dollars.
🇺🇸 Jupiter, Tuolumne County, California · California, United States
Plants destroyed
11,260
of it destroyed
2.3755 t
Sites
9
Agencies
Department of Cannabis Control, California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Governor Gavin Newsom’s Unified Cannabis Enforcement Task Force, created in
June to coordinate the state’s fight against unlicensed grows, carried out its
first major operation in a rural area of Jupiter in Tuolumne County on 4
October 2022.[1][2]Led by the Department of Cannabis Control’s Law
Enforcement Division and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife,
officers served nine search warrants on unlicensed outdoor cultivation
operations.[1][2]
Officers eradicated 11,260 illegal cannabis plants and destroyed 5,237 pounds
(about 2,375.5 kg) of processed cannabis flower, worth an estimated retail
value of more than 15 million dollars according to the cannabis control
department.[1][2]Newsom said the task force would shut down illegal grow
sites and pursue criminal organisations undercutting the legal market.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Plants destroyed
11,260
of it destroyed
2.3755 t
Sites
9
Value (official estimate)
USD 15,000,000
Agencies
Department of Cannabis Control; California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Agency type
Regulator, Other
Cannabis
Living plants (11,260 plants); Herbal cannabis (2.3755 t)
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.
