The 25 Biggest Marijuana Busts in L.A. History

Today is April 20, known to avid weed-smokers as "4/20." For 24 hours (or until they pass out) potheads worldwide will smoke in celebration of the Earth's greatest gift. Weed dealers everywhere will be sporting huge, Kool-Aid Man smiles because they'll make rent thanks to pre-4/20 sales. However, the perks of being a drug dealer are short-lived, especially if you're dealing in large quantities.

The bigger the quantity the bigger the risk, and some weed dealers in Los Angeles County have taken huge risks in recent years. Even though Proposition 215 made California the first state to establish a medical marijuana program, some dealers and dispensaries abuse this luxury. Let's just say they've paid for it. The law's decision to pounce on them has left many a dealer with red eyes—from tears, not tokes.

In honor of 4/20, we've examined the 25 biggest marijuana busts in recent L.A. history. Don't be like these people; think before you ruin your holiday.

Written by Julian Kimble (@JRK316)

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Date: February 2011
Location: La Habra Heights

Anytime you come across a bleeding man and another armed with a rifle running through a residential neighborhood, you should follow them—if you're a cop, at least. They might lead you to several pounds of marijuana. Witnesses reported seeing a man "bleeding from the upper torso" and another armed with a rifle sprinting through a residential area and called the police. Police found nothing when they arrived, but soon got wind of a man who had been hospitalized with a gunshot wound.

After getting a warrant, the LASD found a digital scale, handgun, drug paraphernalia, money and a million dollars worth of marijuana that was already packaged and ready for sale. Edward Smetak, 53, was arrested and charged with felony possession of marijuana and being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm. It's not everyday you see a bloody man being chased by one with a rifle, and it sure as hell isn't everyday you find $1 million worth of weed.

Date: June 2011
Location: El Monte

So when police catch people in the midst of a robbery armed with gloves and hedge trimmers instead of guns, they automatically know what's up, right? Deputies in El Monte caught four men and a teenage boy trying to break into a warehouse and stumbled upon one of the largest grow houses in the history of the city: Over 3,000 marijuana plants worth $1 million. As the amount of marijuana indicates, this was no amateur operation; there was a guard assigned to watch the door and advanced irrigation and lighting systems to keep those plants in excellent condition. The scheming growers got their electricity through underground wires, stealing roughly $10,000 worth on a monthly basis.

So what was the motive for the attempted heist? One of the suspects claimed that his family owned the grow house and had kicked him out of the operation. He decided to settle the little family feud by stealing and ended up exposing everything, further cementing him as the most hated member of the family. 37-year-old Benjamin Kwok, 29-year-old Raymond Guan, 28-year-old Louie Frank Fraijo, 24-year-old Xing Xi He and a 17-year-old boy were all arrested and charged with commercial burglary.

Date: April 2010
Location: Rosemead

How dare the police ruin 4/20 for this stoner collective. The nerve of them. Anyway, four people in Rosemead had the worst 4/20 ever in 2010 after someone totally narc'd them out, calling authorities because they were convinced they were witnessing a burglary. Apparently, several people were seen shuttling items from a home into a van, but they scattered when police showed up. As it turns out, they were carrying bales of marijuana—107 bales of marijuana. Authorities found 2,140 pounds worth of weed worth an estimated $1.5 million inside of the van. All four of the suspects were charged with possession of marijuana and conspiracy to sell and transport marijuana. For them, this had to be like getting arrested on Christmas.

Date: June 2010
Location: Fontana

After slapping a man with a warrant, the LASD found 1,800 marijuana plants inside of a growhouse in Fontana. Authorities received an anonymous tip three months prior to the bust, leading them to the home of 38-year-old Lanson Quin. Quin was arrested by the Operation Safe Streets-Asian Gang Team, and police were stunned that the average suburban home was actually housing $2 million worth of weed. Clearly Quin's cover wasn't that good, because he still got caught.

Date: September 2011
Location: Rosemead

Obviously, where there's smoke, there's fire. Apparently, where there's fire, there's also weed. An electrical fire in the garage of a Rosemead home produced the smoke that led to police discovering that someone had turned the home into a small marijuana farm. Between 800 and 1,000 marijuana plants were discovered along with irrigation and lighting systems. Talk about smoking yourself into trouble.

Date: May 2011
Location: San Gabriel Valley

Following a month-long undercover investigation, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department executed a search warrant and that resulted in the discovery of the individual grow operations. Some 1,900 marijuana plants worth a combined $2 million were discovered inside of three industrial buildings. Four people were arrested: 39-year-old Colby Kelly, 39-year-old Alfred Serrato, 35-year-old Theodoro Castro and 27-year-old Brandon Roberto. What do you even say when you're caught with that much weed?

Date: December 2009
Location: Palmdale

Damn those pesky neighbors. Always getting people in trouble with Johnny Law simply because they can't simply mind their business. The LAPD showed up to a Palmdale home with a search warrant after a neighbor reported what they thought was a break-in and "other suspicious activity." Once inside of the home, police found 127 marijuana plants and the equipment necessary to help them mature into money. Detectives seized $2.2 million worth of maturity that day. Whoever oversaw the operation got lucky that day, dodging arrest in the interim because they just so happened to not be home at the time of the raid. Still, coming home to find your home raided and over $2 million worth of weed taken is a crippling feeling. Probably not as crippling as feeling like you might be going to jail soon.

Date: May 2011
Location: Alhambra, San Gabriel

A monthlog probe into two homes in Alhambra and San Gabriel resulted in $2.5 million worth of weed being taken away from an illegal grow operation. The LASD claimed convicted felon Joseph Hsu took a rented condo and turned it into a grow house and an office, because every business needs an office. 440 marijuana plants, 150 pounds of dried marijuana, two handguns and a shotgun were also recovered inside of the home. Hsu, 30, and Pauline McDonnell, 22, were both arrested on drugs and weapons charges.

Date: January 2008
Location: Santa Clarita

Life imitates art; it was bound to happen at least once, right? Does Santa Clarita ring a bell to fans of Weeds? If it does, it's because that's where show's fist few seasons were filmed. At the beginning of 2008, detectives from the Santa Clarita's Sheriff's office discovered a "substantial" grow operation: A thousand plants worth $3 million inside of a home, that hope resembled the set up that Conrad and Nancy had going through the show's third season.

The operation was uncovered when someone smelled the very distinct scent of marijuana from the sidewalk, then phoned the police. When it all finally came crashing down, neighbors did what Ceilia Hodes probably would've done-they stood on their front lawns and applauded. More than likely, at least one of those self-righteous bastards was a customer. It's amazing that this coincided with the end of the show's third season, when Nancy burns the community down to avoid being discovered.

The people behind this situation probably should've followed suit.

Date: January 2013
Location: Glassell Park

Seriously, though-near a school? A $3 million growing operation was discovered near Sonia Sotomayor School inside of a warehouse. Inside, officers from the LAPD's Northeast Division found 650 plants and 24 people, one of whom was the brains behind the operation. A citizen smelled the strong odor of marijuana and reported it to the LAPD, and several students reported smelling it as well. It's pretty damn hard not to notice the smell of 650 plants, and at least now those kids know what $3 million smells like.

Date: September 2012
Location: Lake Los Angeles

What do you do when you see a 6-foot marijuana plant, embrace it like a long-lost friend? Farmers in Lake Log Angeles cultivated a massive operation, growing close to 1,000 plants between 6 and 8-feet-tall. Each plant was reportedly capable of producing a pound of marijuana and total estimated value was as much as $4 million. 36-year-old Abdul Jamar was arrested—by the same deputy who arrested him for the same crime in June 2012. Jamar reportedly tried to pass the trees off as "Christmas trees." Talk about money trees.

Date: August 2012
Location: Hacienda Heights

A quiet neighborhood is the perfect atmosphere for growing that loud, but it still wasn't strong enough front. Authorities allegedly received a tip that 42-year-old Zhichi Xu was the man behind an operation based out of two Hacienda Heights homes. 450 plants were discovered behind the gate of one house and over 900 behind a gate located on a road somewhere off in the cut. Over 1,400 plants were found in total and police determined that Xu was running a $5 million operation that involved him stealing $125,000 worth of electricity. If you haven't noticed, that's a trend: The electricity supply at these large-scale grow operations comes from stolen electricity, and a lot of it.

Date: July 2011
Location: West Adams District

A ton-yes, literally one ton-of marijuana was found after police (and drug-sniffing dogs) from Torrance detected marijuana after stopping a car in the West Adams District. Following the initial stop, police obtained search warrants and eventually recovered 2,648 pounds of marijuana from various locations. You know how much money that weed is worth? Millions. 35-year-old Otto Gamalier Terrazas-Ruelas, 31-year-old George Alberto Armas, 28-year-old Jose Ayala, 27-year-old Eddie Escobedo, 26-year-old Juan Carlos Ruelas, 24-year-old Jimmy Escobedo, 22-year-old Stephanie Yolanda Salazar and 21-year-old Juana Alberto Moyeda were all arrested.

Date: July 2010
Location: Commerce

Following a drunk driver led the LAPD to a pot of gold—3,000 pounds of marijuana. After spotting a reckless driver, officers attempted to make a simple traffic stop quickly became a full-blown chase. Three people were eventually arrested in Commerce, one of them for DUI. However, police noticed a their clothes were covered in something that wasn't alcohol; it was an "oily" substance that was also found inside of the vehicle. That's where they found several packages of marijuana which was also coated in oil. They were led to a tank car 30,000-gallon tank car where another 38 packages of marijuana were removed and there were at least another 40 inside. Police thought they were getting a drunken idiot off the street, which they did, but they also came across a marijuana jackpot.

Date: June 2012
Location: Norwalk

It really stings when a disaster or accident exposes several millions of dollars worth of marijuana. Thanks to a stove top fire in a condo, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department found 2,000 pounds of marijuana worth $6 million, all because someone burned the hell out of a meal. Authorities obtained a warrant once the blaze was extinguished and seized the marijuana, but suspects were smart enough to flee the scene before law enforcement showed up. However, whoever was responsible still wasn't smart enough to avoid starting a kitchen fire while hiding several millions of dollars worth of marijuana in the home. Everyone eventually screws up somewhere.

Date: October 2012
Location: Diamond Bar and Hacienda Heights

The San Gabriel Valley should be renamed Valley of the Green. Last fall, police raided three homes in Diamond Bar and Hacienda Heights, discovering 2,000 marijuana plants 20 pounds of finished work inside of rental properties. The estimated value? $6 million. The masterminds behind this scheme were so deep in illegal activity that they were even stealing electricity from Southern California Edison at each home. 45-year-old Thank Chiem and 43-year-old Binh Ly were arrested on drug charges sure to anchor them down for a while. There are always a few saps who take the fall, and eventually get to snitching on the people above them. That's the nature of the beast.

Date: February 2013
Location: Downtown Los Angeles

Someone's Super Bowl weekend was turned upside down by the LAPD in February when they discovered 1,500 pounds of dried marijuana and marijuana plants in a warehouse near downtown Los Angeles. Acting on a search warrant, police also found three pistols, two shotguns, two assault rifles a rifle. That's not the full extent of the danger—the Department of Water and Power and Building and Safety had to be called because the building was reportedly using a dangerous amount of electricity; it was so bad that electricity lines connected to the building were charred.

This was an extremely profitable operation: It raked in $7.6 million every 60 days. That's just $4 million per month, meaning the operation was bringing over $45 million annually. In addition to supplying stores in Southern California, it's assumed that the weed was being shipped across the country. This was big business.

Four unlucky bastards were arrested on the scene; none of them got to watch the Super Bowl.

Date: July 2012
Location: Los Angeles

The feeling of forgetting something is a terrible one, so how do you feel when that something is nearly $8 million worth of weed. Members of the U.S. Coast Guard discovered 8,500 pounds of marijuana inside of a panga boat 160 miles West of L.A. The aquatic smuggling of drugs was pretty popular last year, and this was one of the largest seizures in the area. However, Streetgangs.com says that dollar figure is off; according to them, the weed is probably worth between $2 and $3 million. This discovery yields several questions, mainly who left it there, why and are they still alive today?

Date: May 2012
Location: Rancho Dominguez

Feast your eyes on what a reported $10 million worth of weed looks like as it hangs from a ceiling like bats. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department raided a 30,000-square-foot Rancho Dominguez warehouse and seized 2,000 marijuana plants; authorities say the operation had the potential to produce $30 million worth of marijuana annually. Five extremely disappointed people were arrested at the scene, and we can't help but wonder how long it took to round up all of that weed.

Date: March 2011
Location: Los Angeles

Law enforcement wasn't joking when they said they planned to crack down on illegal grow operations, and this one went all the way up to the FBI. The LAPD and DEA joined the feds in raiding six large-scale grow operations and taking thousands of marijuana plants in the process. In fact, multiple tractor trailers were used at the North Hills raid to carry all of the weed away because there was just that much. Marijuana was acceptable for medicinal purposes under both state and city law, but not under federal law. The raids were part of an attempt to extinguish blunts throughout Los Angeles County, and while they definitely set people back, they're not stopping anything in the grand scheme of things.

Date: July 2010
Location: Palmdale

What's up with growing large quantities of marijuana on public property? The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the DEA joined forces to seize11,249 marijuana plants from the Knapp Ranch and Fish Canyons section of Angeles National Forest. The total street value: an estimated $22 million. The LASD's Narcotics Bureau says that between May and July of 2010, 96,441 marijuana plants worth $192 million were removed from public lands. How long did it take to cultivate all of that weed? Better yet, how long did it take to remove it?

Date: August 2010
Location: Granada Hills

Hiding weed in L.A.'s second largest park probably seems like a good idea, because who's going to notice a little weed in a huge park, right? Well $24 million worth of weed isn't "a little weed." Over 3,000 marijuana plants in various stages of development were found at O'Melvany Park after the LAPD acted on a 10-month investigation. Authorities began taking aerial photos of the alleged grow sites, then detectives followed the main hiking trail and found over one-hundred plants, some of which topped 10 feet. According to the LAPD, a complex watering system that involved blocking a dam, tubing, a battery powered pump and a timer was also discovered. Natale Gabriele, 49, was arrested and released after posting bail. The LAPD believes the massive operation ran for at least two years.

Date: June 2010
Location: San Bernadino

A Fontana man was arrested by San Bernadino Sheriff's Deputies after being pulled over and caught with 40,000 pounds of drugs inside of an 18-wheeler. Those 40,000 pounds of drugs consisted of 38,000 pounds of marijuana. The trouble began for 32-year-old Fernando Luevano when police pulled him over and noticed discrepancies with the paperwork for his vehicle. Deputies also smelled the scent of marijuana, and after Luevano allowed them to search the truck, they found thousands of heat-sealed packages containing drugs. The narcotics breakdown goes as follows: 67 pounds of meth, 2,750 pounds of coke and 38,000 pounds of weed. The combined value of the drugs was $45 million, and once again, 95 percent of that was marijuana.

Date: December 2012
Location: Long Beach

Thanks to Snoop and his well-documented relationship with weed, it's nearly impossible to avoid think of Long Beach without thinking about weed, but this massive bust changed that. In December, 16 tons of marijuana worth between $300 million was discovered at a landscaping business in the LBC. After securing a warrant, police found two large containers packed with weed at the Rolling Hills Nursery. Because, of course, a plant nursery is the slickest cover for a multi-million dollar marijuana operation. Four people were arrested on site and Rolling Hills remained quiet on the incident, because what can really be said at that point? They were rolling in green alright, and we don't mean plants.