Between July and September 2025, California’s Unified Cannabis Enforcement Task Force (UCETF) ran 17 multiagency operations across 15 counties, seizing and destroying more than 66.5 tons of illegal cannabis valued at over $222 million, Governor Gavin Newsom announced on 21 October.[1][2] Officers destroyed 133,372 pounds of cannabis and eradicated 234,198 plants, which the state said would have used up to 105 million gallons of water, and made 18 arrests while confiscating 22 firearms.[1][2]
The largest action of the quarter came in July in Monterey County, where UCETF partners led by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department dismantled a major illegal cultivation site; in the following weeks the state destroyed more than 38 tons of cannabis valued at over $125 million there.[1][2] In August, partners led by the Department of Fish and Wildlife eradicated nearly 27,000 plants valued at more than $22 million in Los Angeles County, detaining 20 suspects and seizing toxic pesticides imported from China.[1] In Napa County, state parks officers halted a water diversion tied to illegal cultivation and, during an unrelated emergency, rescued a kidnapped child.[1]
The quarter’s enforcement spanned Monterey, Los Angeles, Kern, Alameda and Shasta counties among others, through a task force of more than two dozen state, local and federal partners co-chaired by the Department of Cannabis Control and the Department of Fish and Wildlife.[1][2] The reports give no court outcomes for the arrested or detained people.[1][2]
