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
	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	DEA and Mexican authorities	Chihuahua, Northern Mexico	1984	10,000 tons (20 million 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]
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,[4][5][6] called by federal prosecutors the "largest domestic marijuana producing organization in the nation."[7]
Operation Green Sweep	US Army/National Guard/Fed agencies	Emerald Triangle, California	1990	1400 plants	first time active-duty troops engaged in counterdrug activities inside US borders[8]
Operation Conquistador	DEA	Caribbean (multiple)	2000	362 tonnes	DEA coordinated 26 country effort;[9] 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][10]
	Federal/local	Houston	2007	19,000 pounds[3]	seized drugs were being transported in school buses[11]
2007–2008 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[12]
	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[13][14]
	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, largest in this table[3][15]
	RCMP	Montreal	2010	8 tons (16,000 pounds) hashish	found in abandoned trailer[16]
Operation Deliverance	DEA	Mexico–US	2010	69 tons	Bilateral[9]
Cowabungle raid?	Federal police	Tijuana	2010	105 tons	largest seizure in Mexico in years[17]
Operation Kruz Control	Federal interagency/local	Arizona	2012–2013	27,000 pounds	yearlong operation
	CBP	Calexico border crossing	2013	35,000 pounds	largest seizure at US-Mexico border[18][19]
	Local police	Goodrich, Texas	2014	100,000 plants	largest seizure in Texas history at the time[20]
Operation Weed Eaters and Operation Thunderstorm	National Drug Law Enforcement Agency	Ondo State and elsewhere in Nigeria	January–June 2014	45,875 kilograms (101,137 lb)[21]
	National Drug Law Enforcement Agency	Akure, Ondo State	January–June 2014	34,030 kilograms (75,020 lb)	Largest single seizure by agency in Ondo State to date, over 20% of all the previous year's seizures, valued at 364 million naira[22]
	CBP	Otay Mesa port of entry, San Diego County, California	2015	27,000 pounds	Second-largest seizure at US–Mexico border[19]
	Federal/local	Lipscomb County, Texas	2015	109,000 plants	new state record[23][24]
	Hong Kong Police Force	Hong Kong	2017	180 kg (400 lb)	largest seizure in HK in a decade[25]

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

References

1. "Colombia raids net 574 tons of marijuana", The Globe and Mail, Toronto, Ontario, p. 3, May 1, 1978
2. Brinkley, Joel (Nov 23, 1984). "Vast, undreamed-of drug use feared". The New York Times. The New York Times. Retrieved 22 June 2019.
3. "America's 5 biggest pot busts", The Week, June 17, 2010
4. "Pioneer Press: Search Results".
5. "Schenectady Gazette - Google News Archive Search".
6. "Lawrence Journal-World - Google News Archive Search".
7. "Kentucky New Era - Google News Archive Search".
8. Bishop, Katherine (August 10, 1990). "Military Takes Part in Drug Sweep And Reaps Criticism and a Lawsuit". The New York Times. The New York Times. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
9. Kleiman & Hawdon 2011, p. 212.
10. Richard Marosi and Tracy Wilkinson (July 28, 2011), "Suspicion in Mexico's Sinaloa cartel", The Los Angeles TimesCS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
11. 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 April 28, 2017 – via HighBeam (subscription required)
12. Dagsavisen: Femti cannabis-gartnere fengslet Archived November 6, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, presentert 27. februar 2008
13. "World's biggest drug seizure in Afghanistan", Daily Telegraph, June 11, 2008
14. Afghans' 260-ton hashish bust could be record: Worth tops $400 million, NATO says, Associated Press, June 11, 2008 – via NBC News
15. Nick Valencia (July 23, 2009), $1 billion in marijuana seized in California, CNN
16. Nearly 8 tons of hashish seized in Canada, NBC News, September 15, 2010
17. http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/10/18/mexico.drug.seizure/
18. http://fox59.com/2015/03/02/feds-seize-15-tons-of-marijuana-in-second-largest-weed-bust-ever-at-a-u-s-boarder-crossing/
19. 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.
20. East Texas marijuana fields valued at $175 million, Associated Press, July 30, 2014 – via The Cannabist (Denver Post)
21. Oluwaseun Akingboye (16 June 2019). "Marijuana: Controversies over Ondo's new 'gold mine'". The Guardian Sunday Magazine. Nigeria.
22. Ben Ezeamalu (March 13, 2015). "NDLEA makes "single largest" seizure of cannabis in Ondo". Premium Times. Nigeria.
23. "109K-plant marijuana bust could be largest of its kind in Texas history", Amarillo Globe-News, June 9, 2015
24. "109K-plant marijuana bust could be largest of its kind in Texas history", Avalanche-Journal, Lubbock, June 10, 2015
25. "Largest Hong Kong cannabis haul in 10 years nets 180kg worth HK$29 million", South China Morning Post, January 5, 2017

Sources

• Kleiman, M.A.R.; Hawdon, J.E. (2011). Encyclopedia of Drug Policy. SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-1-5063-3824-8. Retrieved 2018-04-21.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)