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California Seizes Record Number of Pot Plants
Associated Press | San Jose Mercury News | 10/30/2006

SACRAMENTO - California authorities seized a record number of marijuana plants this harvest season, uprooting nearly 1.7 million plants they valued at more than $6.7 billion, the state Department of Justice said Monday.

The 1,675,681 plants seized under the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting program beat last year's record of 1.1 million plants.

The state Justice Department's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, which leads the program, said the increase is largely due to more eradication teams, better aerial surveillance and air transport of law enforcement officers to the illegal plots. Gardens also are getting bigger, it said.

The program includes local, state and federal agencies that conducted 477 raids in 34 counties between late July and early October. Authorities said they made 27 arrests and seized 29 weapons.

Lake County had the most plants seized, with 314,603. It was followed by Shasta County (227,488), Mendocino (135,736) and Fresno (102,814).

About 80 percent of the marijuana was found on public land such as parks and national forests, with the rest on remote private land, the department said.

The program is aimed at large outdoor marijuana farms, and the figures do not include the thousands of plants seized from suburban homes in the Sacramento and Stockton areas in recent weeks.