DEA eradicates almost 10,000 marijuana plants across St. Croix
The DEA's Caribbean Division reported that Operation No Plant Left Behind eradicated almost 10,000 marijuana plants from 80 fields across St. Croix in a seven-day sweep ending on 20 June 2008, a record for the island.
🇻🇮 St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands · US Virgin Islands
The Drug Enforcement Administration said a seven-day eradication sweep on St. Croix removed almost
10,000 marijuana plants from 80 fields, at a pace of more than 1,400 plants a day, in what acting
special agent in charge Vito Salvatore Guarino called a record for the island.[1]Gene Hawk, the
resident agent in charge in St. Croix, said plants ranged from small plots to twelve-foot-tall
stalks.[1]
Island-wide operation
Operation No Plant Left Behind covered St. Croix from Estate Cotton Valley in the east to Estate
White Lady in the west, north to Rust Op Twist and along the south-shore beaches.[1]The DEA led
federal and local partners including the Virgin Islands Police Department, the Virgin Islands
National Guard, and the Puerto Rico National Guard.[1]Hawk warned that marijuana trafficking
could bring long federal prison terms and noted that several people arrested after prior eradication
work on the island had been sentenced on 17 June 2008 to five years in the U.S. District Court for
the Virgin Islands.[1]
Photos and video
DEA photograph published with the St. Croix eradication release.Photo details
The release gives no arrests during the June 2008 sweep itself; it notes that several people arrested after last year's eradication efforts were sentenced on 17 June 2008 to five years in federal prison, which is a separate earlier case.
Acting special agent Vito Salvatore Guarino said mature plants could have supplied roughly half a pound of marijuana per St. Croix resident; that figure is the agency's illustration, not a measured yield from these fields.
The DEA press release names estates from Cotton Valley to White Lady but does not map individual fields or name cultivators.
Police in Udaipur district uprooted and seized 779.79 kg of green ganja plants grown illegally in the hills at Khara Kupiya, Mandwa. Three NDPS cases were registered at Mandwa police station against three residents and investigation began.
Virgin Islands agents seized about $18,000 in hemp-derived products from Homegrown Bar and Grill's St. Thomas store on 29 April 2025, the retailer alleges. The licensed retailer says the warrantless seizure was uncompensated and is challenging it and the later Act 9072 surrender rule in federal court.
U.S. Coast Guard cutters Resolute and Mohawk intercepted a go-fast vessel about 14 nautical miles off Tiburon, Haiti, on 30 April 2024, apprehending four Jamaican men and seizing 3,736 pounds (about 1,694.62 kg) of marijuana valued by the Coast Guard at more than $3.5 million. A federal jury convicted Miguel Orr and Romaine Betty in January 2026, with sentencing scheduled for 22 May 2026.
A 28-year-old woman, Sherifa Petersen, was arrested and charged with introducing narcotics into the Golden Grove Correctional Facility on St. Croix after officers found two small bags of marijuana in the soles of a pair of sneakers she brought for an inmate. Police were sent to the prison at 1:38 p.m. on Friday, 9 December 2016.
