List of cannabis seizures

This is a list of cannabis seizures notable for record-setting size or social precedent.

Operation  | Agency  | Location  | Year  | Amount and form* | Notes

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| U.S.–Colombia joint operation | Guajira Peninsula, Colombia | 1978 | 570+ tons | Largest drug seizure to date by a factor of 10, worth $200 million.[1][2]
Night Train Seizure | US Coast Guard | Atlantic Ocean near Florida | 1978 | 54 tons (108,000 lb) |
| US Coast Guard | Pacific Ocean 150 miles from San Diego | 1984 | 26,000 pounds | Yacht Arrakis; largest on West Coast to date.[3]
Project Pacifico | U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
and Mexican authorities | Chihuahua, Northern Mexico | 1984 | 10,000 tons (20,000,000 pounds) | Series of raids in Mexico, some unharvested plants, some harvested and baled. Seizure included 45 trucks able to carry 30 tons of bales each.[2]
| US Coast Guard Cutter Roger B Taney (WHEC-37) | Atlantic Ocean | 1985 | 160 Tons | Tug and Barge [4]
Cornbread Mafia seizure | Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (investigator) | 10 Midwest states, based in Kentucky | 1989 | 182 tons (364,000 pounds) valued at $350 million | Over 70 individuals indicted operating 29 farms,[5][6][7] called by federal prosecutors the "largest domestic marijuana producing organization in the nation."[8]
Operation Green Sweep | US Army/National Guard/Bureau of Land Management | King Range National Conservation Area, Emerald Triangle, California | 1990 | 1400 plants | First time active-duty troops engaged in counterdrug activities inside US borders.[9]
Operation Conquistador | DEA | Caribbean (multiple) | 2000 | 362 tonnes | DEA coordinated 26 country effort;[10] largest in this table by weight.
Operation Keymer | Local police | Cambridge UK | 2006 | 54 kg (119 lb) |
Operation Imperial Emperor | DEA | California–Mexico | 2007 | 27,229 pounds | Other drugs and $45 million cash seized.[3][11]
| Federal/local | Houston | 2007 | 19,000 pounds[3] | Seized drugs were being transported in school buses.[12]
Norwegian cannabis raids | National Criminal Investigation Service | Norway | 2007–2008 | 500 cannabis plants on a single farm, over 40 individual raids | One of Norway's largest narcotics cases.[13]
| Counter Narcotics Police of Afghanistan | Kahdahar, Afghanistan | 2008 | 260 tons hashish
520,000 lb† | Said to be largest drug seizure in history at the time, worth $400 million.[14][15]
| US interagency? | Queens | 2009 | 50,000 pounds | BC bud, street value $150 million.[3]
Operation Save our Sierra | State/Federal | Fresno, California | 2009 | 330,000 plants | Estimated value $1 billion, second largest in this table.[3][16]
| RCMP | Montreal | 2010 | 8 tons (16,000 pounds) hashish | Found in abandoned trailer.[17]
Operation Deliverance | DEA | Mexico–US | 2010 | 69 tons | Bilateral[10]
Cowabungle raid? | Federal police | Tijuana | 2010 | 105 tons | Largest seizure in Mexico in years.[18]
| Mexican Army | Baja California desert, Mexico | 2011 | 120 tons of marijuana, worth 1.8 billion pesos ($160 million) | Largest plantation ever seized in Mexico; over 300-acre (120 ha) open-air farm one mile from federal highway, possibly run by Sinaloa cartel[19][20]
Operation Kruz Control | Federal interagency/local | Arizona | 2012–2013 | 27,000 pounds | Year-long operation.
| CBP | Calexico border crossing | 2013 | 35,000 pounds | Largest seizure at US-Mexico border.[21][22]
| Local police | Goodrich, Texas | 2014 | 100,000 plants | Largest seizure in Texas history at the time.[23]
Operation Weed Eaters and Operation Thunderstorm | National Drug Law Enforcement Agency | Akure, Ondo State | January–June 2014 | 34,030 kilograms (75,020 lb)[24] | Largest single seizure by agency in Ondo State to date, valued at 364 million naira.[24]
Ondo State and elsewhere in Nigeria | 45,875 kilograms (101,137 lb)[25]
| U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) | Otay Mesa port of entry, San Diego County, California | 2015 | 27,000 pounds | Second-largest seizure at US–Mexico border.[22]
| Federal/local | Lipscomb County, Texas | 2015 | 109,000 plants | New state record.[26][27]
| Hong Kong Police Force | Hong Kong | 2017 | 180 kg (400 lb) | Largest seizure in HK in a decade.[28]
| DuPage County Metropolitan Enforcement Group | DuPage County, Illinois (Chicago area) | 2021 | 7,688 pounds of cannabis, 406 pounds of cannabis edibles, and 6,891 THC vaping cartridges | Largest seizure in DuPage County "in memory", estimated to be worth $22 million.[29]
Operation Trojan Shield | U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation
Australian Federal Police
New Zealand Police
Europol |  | 2021 | 22 tons[30] | Enabled by ANOM standalone encryption devices used by criminals but secretly supplied by FBI.[31][32]
Antelope Valley eradication operation | Los Angeles County Sheriff
other southern California sheriffs
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
California National Guard
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration |  | 2021 | 375,000 cannabis plants and 33,480 pounds of harvested marijuana | Largest seizure ever in Los Angeles County, worth over one billion dollars.[33][34]
| Oregon State Police | White City, Oregon | 2021 | 500,000 pounds of harvested marijuana | More than 100 people were arrested along with the seizure marijuana worth approximately $500 million.[35]
Operation Caribbe | Canadian Armed Forces | Caribbean | 2006–2021 or later | Over 6.7 tonnes of seized cannabis, 105 tonnes of cocaine as of 2021[update][36] | Included operations by attack submarines HMCS Corner Brook in 2008 and 2011,[37] and HMCS Victoria in 2014.[38]
| Federal-state-tribal interagency | Navajo Reservation near Shiprock, New Mexico | 2020 | 260,000 plants | Over 1,000 greenhouses raided; probably a mix of hemp and THC-bearing cannabis, employed many non-US persons.[39][40]
| Guardia Civil and Policía Foral | Spain | 2022 | 415,000 cannabis plants | Worth an estimated $108 million, called largest cannabis farm in Europe with 166 acres (67 ha) under cultivation.[41]
| Yamhill County Sheriff deputies and volunteers, aided by Oregon State Police, Port of Portland PDX Task Force, Newberg-Dundee Police Department, Polk County Sheriff's Office, and Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue | Yamhill County, Oregon outside Newberg (Portland area) | 2022 | Over 38 tons of harvested marijuana | Largest seizure in county history; farm unlicensed by Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission processing for illegal out-of-state sale; firearms and $80,000 in foil-wrapped cash also seized; evidence of wire transfers to Mexican state of Michoacán. Cannabis valued at $76.5 million in Oregon or $269 million on US East Coast.[42]

*Assumed dried leaf or flower material unless otherwise specified.
†May not be independently verified

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Colombia raids net 574 tons of marijuana", The Globe and Mail, Toronto, Ontario, p. 3, May 1, 1978
2. ^ a b Brinkley, Joel (November 23, 1984). "Vast, undreamed-of drug use feared". The New York Times. Retrieved 2019-06-22.
3. ^ a b c d e "America's 5 biggest pot busts", The Week, June 17, 2010
4. ^ "Associated Press October 1985". Associated Press.
5. ^ "Pioneer Press: Search Results".
6. ^ "Schenectady Gazette - Google News Archive Search".
7. ^ "Lawrence Journal-World - Google News Archive Search".
8. ^ "Kentucky New Era - Google News Archive Search".
9. ^ Bishop, Katherine (August 10, 1990). "Military Takes Part in Drug Sweep And Reaps Criticism and a Lawsuit". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-10-15.
10. ^ a b Kleiman & Hawdon 2011, p. 212.
11. ^ Richard Marosi; Tracy Wilkinson (July 28, 2011), "Suspicion in Mexico's Sinaloa cartel", The Los Angeles Times
12. ^ IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT AGENTS, LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES SEIZE 19,000 POUNDS OF MARIJUANA, US Fed News Service, March 5, 2007, archived from the original on 2017-04-28
13. ^ "Femti cannabis-gartnere fengslet" [Fifty cannabis gardeners imprisoned]. Dagsavisen (in Norwegian). February 27, 2008. Archived from the original on 2009-11-06.
14. ^ "World's biggest drug seizure in Afghanistan", Daily Telegraph, June 11, 2008
15. ^ Afghans' 260-ton hashish bust could be record: Worth tops $400 million, NATO says, Associated Press, June 11, 2008 – via NBC News
16. ^ Nick Valencia (July 23, 2009), $1 billion in marijuana seized in California, CNN
17. ^ Nearly 8 tons of hashish seized in Canada, NBC News, September 15, 2010
18. ^ "Authorities seize 105 tons of marijuana in northern Mexico". CNN.
19. ^ "Army discovers largest marijuana plantation ever in Mexico". Associated Press. July 14, 2011.
20. ^ "58 held in Mexico's biggest marijuana farm bust". Associated Press. July 15, 2011 – via Deseret News.
21. ^ "Feds seize 15 tons of marijuana in second largest weed bust ever at a U.S. Border crossing". March 3, 2015.
22. ^ a b Andie Adams (February 27, 2015). "Record-Breaking Bust: 15 Tons of Pot Seized at Otay Mesa Port, the seizure has an estimated street value of about $18.96 million". NBC San Diego.
23. ^ East Texas marijuana fields valued at $175 million, Associated Press, July 30, 2014 – via The Cannabist (Denver Post)
24. ^ a b Ben Ezeamalu (March 13, 2015). "NDLEA makes "single largest" seizure of cannabis in Ondo". Premium Times. Nigeria.
25. ^ Oluwaseun Akingboye (June 16, 2019). "Marijuana: Controversies over Ondo's new 'gold mine'". The Guardian Sunday Magazine. Nigeria.
26. ^ "109K-plant marijuana bust could be largest of its kind in Texas history", Amarillo Globe-News, June 9, 2015
27. ^ "109K-plant marijuana bust could be largest of its kind in Texas history", Avalanche-Journal, Lubbock, June 10, 2015
28. ^ "Largest Hong Kong cannabis haul in 10 years nets 180kg worth HK$29 million", South China Morning Post, January 5, 2017
29. ^ "Police seize $22 million in marijuana in warehouse in Wood Dale, arrest a man they say shot at them during a chase". Chicago Tribune.
30. ^ Byron Tau; James Marson (June 8, 2021). "The FBI Secretly Ran the Anom Messaging Platform, Yielding Hundreds of Arrests in Global Sting". Wall Street Journal.
31. ^ "FBI secretly ran phone encryption program used by organized crime, global sting yields 800 arrests". USA Today. June 8, 2021.
32. ^ "FBI Targets Encrypted Platforms Used by Criminal Groups: Global Partners Announce Results of Innovative Operation Trojan Shield". Official website. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
33. ^ Tori B. Powell (July 7, 2021). "$1.19 billion worth of marijuana seized in massive drug bust in California". CBS News.
34. ^ "Antelope Valley Marijuana Eradication Operation". July 7, 2021.
35. ^ Kale Williams (July 7, 2021). "State troopers seize half a million pounds of illegal marijuana in southern Oregon". The Oregonian/OregonLive.
36. ^ Julia Lennips (February 26, 2021). "Ships depart CFB Esquimalt for Operation Caribbe". Canadian Military Family.
37. ^ "Navy surveillance submarine returning to Victoria waters". Victoria News. June 14, 2021.
38. ^ "Royal Canadian Navy Submarines: Fleet Status". official website. Government of Canada. February 19, 2015. "In September 2014, Victoria's crew received the Operational Service Medal for their successful participation in Operation CARIBBE, a US-led, multinational effort to interdict drug trafficking in the waters of the Caribbean Basin and the Eastern Pacific."
39. ^ "Details emerge from federal raid on Navajo-area farms". Associated Press. November 16, 2020.
40. ^ Ed Williams (September 24, 2020). "Chaos and cannabis: A massive hemp empire is accused of growing illegal marijuana and sowing violence on the Navajo reservation". Navajo Times.
41. ^ Josh Salisbury (April 14, 2022). "Police raid Europe's 'biggest cannabis farm' in Spain worth £83m". Evening Standard – via Yahoo! News.
42. ^ Gary Allen (October 19, 2022). "More than 38 tons of marijuana seized from farm near Newberg". The Newberg Graphic.

### Sources

[edit]

* Kleiman, M.A.R.; Hawdon, J.E. (2011). Encyclopedia of Drug Policy. SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-1-5063-3824-8. Retrieved 2018-04-21.

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