18,926 marijuana plants eradicated in Sequoia National Park
Rangers and state anti-marijuana officers removed 18,926 marijuana plants from a hidden plantation in the East Fork Kaweah River drainage on 2 September 2004. The near-mature crop was valued at more than $75 million, and weapons and chemicals were seized at the site.
🇺🇸 East Fork drainage, Kaweah River, Sequoia National Park · California, United States
National Park Service rangers and officers from cooperating agencies removed 18,926 marijuana plants
from a plantation hidden in the East Fork drainage of the Kaweah River on 2 September 2004.[1][2]Thirteen park rangers, a special agent and ten state anti-marijuana (CAMP) officers took part, with
immigration-service helicopters overhead using infrared gear to check the site for growers before
teams moved in.[1][2]
The farm was organized and well kept, with encampments and acres of cleared underbrush, and teams
seized firearms and hundreds of pounds of fertilizer and pesticides.[1]The near-mature crop
would have been worth more than $75 million, the park service said.[1][2]Investigators tied the
site to the 19 August arrest of four Mexican nationals and kept investigating the driver and
passenger of the car that collected them.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
No one was arrested in the 2 September raid itself; investigators said several people were under investigation for conspiracy to grow marijuana on public lands.
The plants were removed with CAMP officers taking part, so the 2004 CAMP season total may include them.
No verifiable photograph of this eradication with a recoverable direct image address was found in the opened sources.
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.
