Siskiyou raids destroyed 9,200 plants at 113 Hmong grows
Siskiyou County teams raided 113 Hmong marijuana grows over four months in 2016, destroying 9,200 plants and 3,000 pounds of marijuana and jailing 50 people. The resulting criminal cases, fewer than two dozen, were later dismissed after California reduced illegal cultivation to a misdemeanor.
🇺🇸 Siskiyou County, California · California, United States
Arrested
50
Plants destroyed
9,200
Cannabis
1.36078 t
Sites
113
Agencies
Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office, California Department of Fish and Wildlife
By mid-summer 2016, Sheriff Lopey concluded that fining the growers was useless.[1]Sheriff’s volunteers teamed up with the county prosecutor’s office and
state Fish and Game officials to raid the fields.[1]Officers cleared as many
as three fields a day, raiding 113 grows in four months.[1]Fifty Hmong
growers were hauled off to jail.[1]
The teams seized generators and water pumps and destroyed 9,200 cannabis plants
and 3,000 pounds of marijuana.[1]Lopey estimated the raids destroyed as much
as 20% of the 2016 crop.[1]The summer operation produced fewer than two dozen
criminal cases, which county judges dismissed after California voters made
illegal cultivation a misdemeanor that November.[1]
Siskiyou County supervisors had banned outdoor cultivation in November 2015
after complaints about fences, water trucks, fertilizer runoff and trash.[1]
Photos and video
Siskiyou County Sheriff Marijuana Eradication Team raiding a Hmong-owned farm near Dorris with makeshift shacks used for storage and living. Photo: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles TimesPhoto details
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.
