11,400 plants and four arrests in San Mateo County grow crackdown
A two-month Campaign Against Marijuana Planting eradicated 11,400 plants worth about $22.8 million on water-district and open-space land near Devil's Canyon in August 2017. Four men were arrested, accused of tying into 6,889 of the plants after damming a creek to irrigate the sites.
🇺🇸 Devil's Canyon, open space preserves, San Mateo County · California, United States
Authorities announced on 24 August 2017 the end of a two-month Campaign Against Marijuana Planting that netted 11,400 plants with a street value of $22.8 million in San Mateo County.[1]Led by the California Department of Justice, the campaign targeted large-scale grows on public and private land that cause deforestation, damage wildlife habitat and endanger residents.[1]The sites sat on San Francisco Water Department and Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District property near Devil’s Canyon, west of Skyline Boulevard.[1]
Four men were arrested over the sites: Joaquin Sanchez, 38, and Joel Ochoa Sanchez, 32, both of Redwood City, and Juan Farias Galeana, 28, and Jose Antonio Mendoza, 26, both of Michoacan, Mexico.[1][2]The suspects were linked to 6,889 of the plants, had dammed a creek and diverted its water into a man-made pool, and used it to irrigate grows in the Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve, according to the district attorney’s office.[1]Joel Ochoa Sanchez was also charged with unlawful cultivation of marijuana, resisting arrest and assaulting a police animal, and was due in court on 1 September.[1]The plants ranged from two to ten feet tall and used sophisticated irrigation tapping local water sources.[2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The two outlets round the same official street-value estimate differently, $22.8 million and about $23 million; this report uses $22.8 million.
No court outcome beyond one suspect's 1 September hearing was reported.
The Cannabist page carries a Narcotics Task Force handout photo of the removed plants whose direct file address could not be recovered, so no photo is listed.
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.
