Record 15,392 cannabis plants uprooted in San José de Ocoa
DNCD and prosecutors uprooted 15,392 marijuana plants from a plantation in El Pinar, San José de Ocoa, in what the agency called the largest domestic cultivation bust in the country's history. More than 10 people were questioned; no charges were reported.
🇩🇴 El Pinar municipal district, San José de Ocoa province, Dominican Republic
The National Drug Control Agency (DNCD) and the Public Ministry uprooted 15,392 marijuana plants from a plantation in the hills of El Pinar municipal district, San José de Ocoa province, the agency said.[1][2][3][4][5]The DNCD called it the largest cultivation bust in the country’s history.[1][2][3][6][5][7]
More than 70 officers took part in the three-day operation, using drone overflights and tracking.[1][2][3][5]The plantation had a drip-irrigation system.[1][2][4]
Officers also raided a house used as a collection centre.[1][3][6][5]Inside they found 17 jugs and boxes filled with marijuana and dried plants, seven tanks, four shredders, a chainsaw, fertilisers, 10 fans, four batteries, an inverter, a hydraulic press, a scale, submersible and fumigation pumps, eight solar panels, a satellite dish, wire and hoses.[1]
The Public Ministry and the DNCD questioned more than 10 Dominicans and Haitians.[1][6][7]The agency said the plants were sent under chain of custody to the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (INACIF) to determine their total weight.[1][2][6]On 22 June 2026 the DNCD said INACIF experts and DNCD chain-of-custody officers had spent more than 15 hours counting and analysing the seized plants, which weighed 13,863 pounds (about 6,288 kg).[7][8]Security forces kept a presence in the area to gather further evidence.[1][6]
Agents had to reach the mountain-slope plantations on horses and mules because the sites are practically inaccessible by vehicle.[5]
The DNCD gives no start date for the three-day sweep; 21 June 2026 is the date of its statement.
No area for the plantation was published.
The DNCD says it questioned more than 10 people but does not say how many were arrested or charged; DR1 describes them as detained or interrogated.
The DNCD release links the plantation to an earlier June raid in the same area, a separate event left out here.
DR1's account is based on the DNCD release and is not independent.
EFE names only San José de Ocoa province while the DNCD republication specifies El Pinar municipal district; the report keeps the more precise district location.
EFE also cites 2026 national drug totals and the US Operation Lanza del Sur context, which are separate statistics left out here.
The article's 20,227-plant six-month aggregate across three farms in Ocoa and Baní is a campaign total left out of this single-event report.
The article also summarizes a 6 June El Pinar seizure of more than 3,000 plants with two arrests and a 2 February Montería, Baní seizure of 1,835 plants, separate events left out here.
The article gives no separate date for the 15,392-plant operation beyond the past weekend relative to its 23 June publication; the 21 June DNCD statement date is retained.
The DNCD, with prosecutors and police, arrested 169 people in 1,468 operations and 17 searches across six northern Dominican provinces over a week. Authorities reported 2,077.1 grams of marijuana among 29,787.3 grams of suspected drugs seized.
The DNCD and partner agencies said they removed 5,364 cannabis plants from two sites in Azua Province on 11 September 2026, with 5,520 seedlings also found at Las Lagunas. A woman was arrested.
The DNCD eradicated at least 4,835 marijuana plants in Peravia and San José de Ocoa between February and June 2026, including more than 3,000 at a farm in El Pinar. Three people were arrested at the El Pinar site, where officers also seized processing equipment and stored marijuana.
Dominican anti-drug agents dismantled a mountain marijuana plantation in Monteria, Bani, seizing 1,835 plants with cultivation equipment. Three suspects, including the Dominican landowner and two Haitian citizens, remained fugitives and were urged to surrender.
