Federal-tribal raids destroy 260,000 plants in Navajo hemp front
FBI, Navajo Nation and other officers raided Dineh Benally's supposed hemp farms near Shiprock, destroying about 260,000 plants that tribal authorities said were a front for illicit cannabis; no arrests were announced.
🇺🇸 Shiprock area, Navajo Nation, New Mexico · New Mexico, United States
Dineh Benally, a former San Juan River farm board president, had leased more
than 400 acres of Navajo farmland near Shiprock for what he called a hemp
enterprise, filling former cornfields with hundreds of lighted
greenhouses.[1]Weeks before the raids, a Navajo court barred him from
growing, and tribal inspectors found much of the crop looked like
marijuana.[2]
The FBI, the Navajo Nation Police and more than a dozen other agencies then
raided the operation, dubbed Operation Navajo Gold, after reports of
THC-rich cannabis production, interstate trafficking and labour
violations.[2]The multi-agency sweep eradicated about 260,000 live plants
and confiscated30 tons of evidence, including about 1,000 pounds of
high-grade marijuana ready for distribution, the US Attorney’s office
said.[3]No arrests were announced in the raid reports.[3]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
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.
