Mendocino Marijuana Raid: 'Operation Full Court Press' Seizes 632,000 Marijuana Plants

UKIAH, Calif. -- An estimated $800 million worth of marijuana has been seized following a massive raid on illegal grows on public lands deep in Northern California's pot country, authorities said Tuesday.

The three-week effort, known as Operation Full Court Press, to purge the Mendocino National Forest of illegal gardens, seized more than 632,000 marijuana plants. The operation also led to 132 people being arrested as 118 were booked on federal and state charges and 14 were detained on immigration violations.

Several Mexican-based drug trafficking organizations were behind the illegal grows, Department of Justice spokeswoman Michelle Gregory said.

In previous years, officials have blamed Mexican drug cartels for some of the state's largest growing operations, but Gregory stopped short of making that claim.

"We've been looking at all of these groups for several years," Gregory said. "We're continuously trying to figure out who these guys are and their ties."

The nearly $800 million in marijuana plants seized is a conservative estimate, said John Heil, a regional spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service. The amount is based on a street value of marijuana being worth about $2,500 per pound, Heil said.

Authorities have said a focus on the Mendocino National Forest this year stemmed from citizen complaints a year ago about an increasing number of confrontations with armed guards protecting pot grows.

The 1,400-square-mile forest covers six counties in a region of mountains and forests known as the Emerald Triangle due to its high concentration of pot farms.

Officials said that the latest raids also seized nearly 2,000 pounds of processed marijuana, 38 guns and 20 vehicles. Agents also removed trash and chemicals as well as about 40 miles of irrigation line that damage forestland and waterways.

"It has been very successful operation for all of the agencies involved," Heil said. "We tried to hit an area that seems to have a significant problem."

The operation conducted by local, state and federal agencies was part of an annual summer effort to eradicate marijuana from public lands across the state.

Comments

[Kwazireal]

09:18 PM on 08/22/2011

Two days after this story broke, Matt Coleman, 45, a coordinator with the Mendocino Land Trust was murdered by multiple gunshot wounds. Officials are downplaying any possible motive associated with pot growing in the area.

[Terry Mckinney]

01:02 AM on 08/17/2011

There's a link at the bottom of the article claiming that the DEA began this operation by raiding the 1st applicant under a new MM law.Don't tell me that this agency isn't out of control and anyone that supports them is no lover of freedom of any kind.The DEA spreads poison around like fertilizer and grows hatred by the kilo.

[loganhunter]

12:33 AM on 08/15/2011

I love how the DEA claims they are making progress in the drug war.

Every year the number of plants seized becomes larger and larger. If they were really successful that number would be getting smaller and smaller---true?

Every year they claim less people are smoking marijuana , therefore they are winning the drug war, yet every year they arrest thousands more people than the previous year-- a number now reaching over 800K.

[labuyu]

08:20 PM on 08/11/2011

Burn baby burn!

[zombywulf]

06:56 PM on 08/11/2011

$800'000,000/632000lbs = $1265.83 lb NOT $2500/lb. now if you subtract 2/3 the weight for stems and leaves you get 216000lbs that works out to $3703lb. Looks like the feds are outsourcing their figures. And just exactly how much does it cost to pay for the balck shirts and their helicopters. More than likely one hell of alot more than the recovered pot . But hey they did manage to get 14 criminal aliens out of the forest.

[darkmark]

09:00 PM on 08/10/2011

the litttle boys keep playing at being crusaders. legalized it and we won't have all these problems. legalize hemp too. i'm so tired of living under the rule of stew ped. who are these people that decide weed is illegal? we know who they are and why they make these laws. where's our united states of america? let's switch the rules in our favor instead of the fascists and the totally ignorant.

[ageless]

08:55 PM on 08/10/2011

Didn’t alcohol take this same rout? Now alcohol is legal. It is going to happen. Maybe soon.

[electrosef]

08:36 PM on 08/10/2011

I know the alcoholic beverage corporations are happy about this -- THEY should be paying for this, not taxpayers!

[AlfredE69]

07:25 PM on 08/10/2011

Marijuana should be re-legalized so people can grow their own without depending on dealers. It is relatively easy to grow in your back yard or indoors.

[darkmark]

09:47 PM on 08/10/2011

that's right re-legalized. we've all been conned.
some how they get to steal from us on a very large scale
but if we steal a piece of candy its off to jail.

[profunk]

04:32 PM on 08/10/2011

Mendocino County is simultaneously working with legitimate medical marijuana growers and cooperating with this effort to clean out invasive illegal grow activities. As a society, we are at least 40 years too late in diminishing the emotionalism that surrounds the use of THC. The medical approach is a good one, because "licensing" THC use is a mature way to discourage children and teens with developing brains from partying with this beneficial (in moderation) herb. I'd like to see widespread individual cannabis cultivation, licensed cooperatives, less smoking of the herb, and more usage in food.

[Jim Letchworth]

04:18 PM on 08/10/2011

..finally! a death blow to this nasty business! now, at last, we have rid ourselves forever of this weed and the industry that propagates it, and we can concentrate our funds on doing the same to coke and heroin....."bring it onnnnn!!!"

[audun]

04:41 PM on 08/10/2011

not a death blow, and only a nasty business because of its unnecessary criminal status... hmmm, hey you're just being sarcastic right? (if not you're pretty silly, daft and dumb, since it is ignorance like this that potentiate hatred and violence, but you obviously know that, right, it's probably just me who's not getting the irony)

[Jim Letchworth]

12:37 PM on 08/11/2011

..;o]

[The Shadow]

04:53 PM on 08/10/2011

a ‘death blow’ ?? :-)

[teachone]

03:42 PM on 08/10/2011

THANK YOU U.S. GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS FOR GETTING RID OF THIS TRASH AND DOING YOUR JOB!! NOW IF YOU WILL JUST GET RID OF ALL OF THOSE INVOLVED IN PRODUCING IT AND THE DRUG ADDICTS USING AND BUYING IT AND SHOVE THEM OUT OF THIS COUNTRY, ALL WILL BE WELL!!!!

[audun]

04:58 PM on 08/10/2011

that's nice, let's hate some more, haven't done that enough yet, surely that way we'll nip it by the root, solve a few problems, how 'bout that eh? where's that ol police state we've all been working so hard for? hey?! yeah, really time to de-evolve a little more, don't you think?

hey, (sincere change of tone into a friendly one) i'm only really being very obviously ironic, and i can only suppose that so are you, having "knowledge is power" as a banner and all, so let's let both our ridiculous mock hatred comments shine as an example of the ignorance, fear and alienating human disability that luckily fewer and fewer on this beautiful planet are suffering from anymore.

[zombywulf]

06:59 PM on 08/11/2011

I see Foz news has ruined your brain.

[Verh]

07:16 PM on 08/11/2011

I think the OP is being sarcastic.

[Robert P Doyle SR]

03:18 PM on 08/10/2011

The raids on grow ops, by being publicized, will increase the interest of copy-cat operations. With the published statments of the high prices and the relatively large monetary value of what was seized is encouragment to Americans who are broke.
The sad economy in America leaves millions of Americans with ever diminishing resources and social services taxed to the maximum capacity, no option other than self employment.
Legalization of Medical Marijuana alone is a potential trillion doller per year benefit to America, with a world wide need for new natural drugs. The only downside is to the existing pharmecuetical firms who cannot patent a creation of Nature, or GOD, that can be available to home garderners.
The other big industry threatened by legal cannabis is the Petro-Chemical Industries. Marijuana can replace pollution toxins from processing crude oil with clean green industries. If something is plastic today, it is most likely made from crude oil. If it is a component of FORD Automotive, there is a better than even possibility it is from soy plants. The use of plant matter to manufacture thousands of items is an affordable and clean process. THINK GREEN-VOTE GREEN-LIVE GREEN 2012

[The Shadow]

05:08 PM on 08/10/2011

All of the articles attract attention; many see the waste of the War on Drugs. While legal medical marijuana will not fix this country’s deficit, new taxes and jobs may help the cities, counties and states where medical marijuana is legal. Legalization of recreational marijuana would undo the black market and make tax paying citizens out of criminals, create new products and make a positive contribution to this country.

Legalize marijuana and hemp; create two new industries.

[APRandom]

02:14 PM on 08/10/2011

Wanna stop this? Legalize it, but then the price would drop and poverty would return to north California. Also, the cops would have to find something else to do. Outlaw coffee instead. Based on my reaction to caffeine, that stuff should be Schedule One.

[missouriwatcher]

02:36 PM on 08/10/2011

Cops would have plenty of business with real crime. We don't need no stinkin' Prohibition, but we've got it anyway. More of our tax dollars being wasted.

[Verh]

07:23 PM on 08/11/2011

Cops - need to justify their existence. So, what we, the public must do is what they did in Breckenridge, CO. The town told the cops what they wanted: legal MJ use.

Several counties in Colorado have some of the "coolest" police in the nation, btw. These police are *true* public servants. A model for policing across the nation.
It's up to the public, the taxpayers, to demand an end to prohibition.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/04/breckenridge-votes-overwh_n_344815.html

[Mustash]

05:25 PM on 08/10/2011

'price would drop and poverty would return to north California'

When alcohol was legalized, the price of beer, wine and spirits went down and the quality went up. The products became standardized and also became safe to drink.

Today, while Budweiser, Miller and Coors make good beer, the really great beer is made by the microbreweries. It is the same with wine. I believe the same would be true of spirits if we could distill at home.

I believe R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris would probably make a pretty good joint. However, they add chemicals to cigarettes to make them burn slowly, consistently, make the smoke taste better, etc... I fully expect Humboldt County to become the Napa Valley ( wine country ) of Marijuana. They grow some great organic weed in the Emerald Triangle.

[mikemcnary]

01:41 PM on 08/10/2011

Just another reason for Progressives to not vote for Obama.

[pkafin]

04:14 PM on 08/10/2011

If you read carefully, the operations were all on huge farms and undertaken on federal lands. The feds have not been busting American citizens growing on their own property in accordance with prop 215; or even those growing considerably more than is allowed under prop 215.

Obama hasn't called off the dogs as much as one might have hoped, but this is hardly the sort of thing that a "progressive" should get enraged about. These farms were not endorsed by popular sentiment of the local populations.