Nearly 3,000 marijuana plants eradicated in Sequoia National Park
Rangers removed 2,986 marijuana plants worth an estimated $7.5 million from a wilderness grow site in Sequoia National Park on 14 September 2016. No arrests were made in the Yucca Creek operation, carried out with the California Army National Guard.
🇺🇸 Yucca Creek drainage, Sequoia National Park, California · California, United States
Law enforcement officers found a marijuana cultivation site in the Yucca Creek drainage, a designated wilderness area of Sequoia National Park west of Generals Highway, and removed 2,986 plants on 14 September 2016.[1]The park service estimated the street value of the plants at $7.5 million.[1]
No arrests were made and the investigation was continuing when the park service announced the operation on 12 October.[1]Rangers were assisted by the California Army National Guard’s Counterdrug Task Force.[1]The park service warned that grows like this one leave trash, pesticides and fertilisers in the watershed, poach wildlife and clear forest.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Plants destroyed
2,986
Value (official estimate)
USD 7,500,000
Agencies
National Park Service; California Army National Guard
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.
