On 3 September 2026 Guatemala’s security forces located and eradicated a marijuana plantation in the municipality of Las Cruces, department of Petén, near the Mexican border.[1][2] Agents of SGAIA, the anti-narcotics unit of the National Civil Police, carried out the operation with army soldiers in mountainous terrain.[1][2] Officers pulled up the plants and incinerated them after finding the field in a difficult-to-access area during anti-drug patrols.[3] Neither account reported arrests or named the suspected growers, and police did not say whether processing structures were found nearby.[3]

Prensa Latina rounded the same operation to 63,000 plants worth more than 31 million quetzales, just over four million dollars.[1][2]

The Interior Ministry said operations would continue in different parts of the country, especially Petén, where areas used for drug crops have historically been identified.[1] Anti-narcotics units described detecting and eradicating plantations as a key strategy to weaken the finances of groups that produce and distribute drugs.[1] The PNC asked the public to report drug activity to police line 110, anti-narcotics line 1577 and Crime Stoppers line 1561.[3]

The anti-narcotics unit’s own statement places the plants in mountainous areas alongside Caserío Ixmucané, Las Cruces, Petén.[4] The plants were in the harvest stage and were destroyed on the spot, according to SGAIA.[4]