Billion-Dollar Marijuana Bust Reported

Law-enforcement officials raided an illicit backcountry California marijuana grow operation and destroyed 318,000 plants, which authorities valued as worth $1.2 billion on the street, the Associated Press reported July 23.

State and federal agents arrested 83 people as part of the operation and seized $41,000 in cash and 25 weapons. The marijuana was being grown in multiple locations in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Fresno Country, allegedly by Mexican drug cartels. “We found it planted on hillsides and gullies, and some of the plants had grown to be eight feet tall,” aid Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims.

However, Mims said that the operation had accounted for only a fraction of the marijuana being grown in the region.