13,573 marijuana plants destroyed in Tajumulco, San Marcos
Guatemalan anti-narcotics police, soldiers and prosecutors destroyed 13,573 marijuana plants and 1,165,975 poppy plants in the Tajumulco highlands of San Marcos on 19 March 2024. The National Civil Police valued the marijuana at about 5.09 million quetzales, and no arrests were reported.
🇬🇹 Malacatillo, La Vega and Nueva Candelaria, Tajumulco, San Marcos · Guatemala
Plants destroyed
13,573
Agency
Subdirección General de Análisis de Información Antinarcótica (SGAIA)
Anti-narcotics police, soldiers and prosecutors cleared illegal plantations in
Malacatillo, La Vega and Nueva Candelaria, in Tajumulco, San Marcos, on 19 March
2024.[1]
The operation destroyed 13,573 marijuana plants.[1]The National Civil Police
valued the destroyed marijuana at about 5,089,875 quetzales.[1]The same
operation uprooted 1,165,975 poppy plants, which the police valued at 29,149,375
quetzales.[1]TV Azteca Guatemala, citing the same joint operation, gave the
same 13,573 marijuana plants valued at 5,089,875 quetzales and the same
1,165,975 poppy plants.[2]
The authorities are the SGAIA, the anti-narcotics analysis division of the
National Civil Police, the Guatemalan Army and the Public Prosecutor’s Office.[2]
TV Azteca Guatemala described the operation as the first eradication with
figures in the millions reported that year.[2]Authorities said the
eradication work would continue in the highlands of San Marcos department.[2]
Photos and video
Police officers and soldiers standing among poppy and marijuana plants during the eradication in Tajumulco, San Marcos. Photo: MINGOBPhoto details
Neither account gives a count of the fields or the area in hectares cleared.
No arrests, court step or independent valuation beyond the police estimate is reported.
The date of the operation itself is the 19 March 2024 dateline of the AGN dispatch and the same-day TV Azteca report; neither says whether the work began on an earlier day.
The coordinates mark the Tajumulco municipality centre; the named villages are not pinpointed.
The poppy total and its valuation are for a different substance and are not recorded as cannabis figures; the police published no separate combined figure for both drugs.
Guatemala's anti-narcotics police eradicated and burned 8,820 mature cannabis plants near Ixcoch and Ixmucané in Las Cruces, Petén, on 25 October 2026. The agency valued the plants at Q4,410,000.
Guatemala's anti-narcotics police eradicated and burned 6,915 marijuana plants ready for harvest in the mountains of Momostenango, Totonicapán, on 23 October 2026. The National Civil Police valued the crop at 3,457,500 quetzales. No arrests were reported. The ministry named the site aldea Pamaría; other accounts of the same count call it Paraje Racaná.
Anti-narcotics police destroyed 19,420 cannabis plants near Momostenango, Totonicapán, and 15,143 in Ixmucané, Las Cruces, Petén, the Interior Ministry reported after weekend operations. Prosecutors supported the searches and eradication work. The operations applied the existing cultivation prohibition, which carries five to twenty years in prison plus a fine for unauthorised growing.
Guatemala's National Civil Police and Defense Ministry eradicated 7,920 cannabis plants on a 660-square-metre plot at Cooperativa Ixmucané, Las Cruces, on 3 October 2026. The police valued the crop at Q3,960,000.
