Operation LOCCUST eradicates 420,000 marijuana plants in Sequoia National Forest
Federal, state and county officers eradicated more than 420,000 marijuana plants at 83 grow sites in the Sequoia National Forest above Porterville in a week-long August 2008 saturation operation, arresting 36 people. Officials valued the haul at more than $1 billion and attributed the remote grows to a Mexican drug cartel.
🇺🇸 Sugar Loaf and Blue Ridge, Sequoia National Forest, Tulare County, California · California, United States
Federal, state and county officers spent about a week cutting down marijuana gardens across the Sequoia National Forest above Porterville in an effort named Operation LOCCUST.[1][2][3]By 7 August 2008 they had destroyed more than 420,000 plants at 83 grow sites in the Sugar Loaf and Blue Ridge areas, a haul officials valued at more than $1 billion on the street.[1][2]Tulare County Sheriff Bill Wittman called it the largest and most sophisticated growing operation authorities had seen in recent years.[2]
36 arrested, weapons and contraband seized
Officers arrested 36 people on suspicion of offences including cultivation of marijuana, possession for sale, firearms offences and conspiracy.[2][3]They seized 27 weapons along with $6,900 in cash, three vehicles, eight ounces of cocaine and two and a half pounds of methamphetamine found at the sites.[3]The suspects were booked into custody while the investigation continued.[3]
Officials attributed the grows to a Mexican drug cartel that chose the remote forest to cultivate and live, leaving camps with tents, food and poached wildlife.[1][2]Crews also hauled out miles of irrigation pipe, tonnes of rubbish, fertiliser and pesticides that officials said threatened wildlife and the water table.[2][3]The operation drew national attention: drug czar John Walters joined the sheriff and the US attorney at a Visalia news conference on 6 August.[3]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
UPI reported 38 arrests and 29 guns seized while the other two accounts reported 36 arrests and 27 weapons; the report uses 36 and 27.
Official value estimates for the eradicated plants differ between more than $1 billion, about $1.4 billion and $1.6 billion.
The Recorder described the operation as running since the previous November with 340,685 plants eradicated cumulatively, a wider scope than the August saturation push reported here.
No charges, trial or sentencing outcomes for the arrested people were reported in the opened sources.
Photographs on the opened pages show the Visalia news conference, not the forest grows, so no event photo is linked.
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.
Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies eradicated about 720 marijuana plants at an illegal creekside greenhouse grow near Mt. Hamilton Road in September 2026. No suspects were found at the remote site, where officers also reported illegal water diversion from a nearby creek.
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.
