California Officials Say Over $316M of Illicit Cannabis Seized Since January

California’s Unified Cannabis Enforcement Task Force and agencies including the Department of Fish & Wildlife and the Department of Cannabis Control report having seized over $316 million in illicit cannabis products during Q1 2025. The office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced last week that since January, the governor’s Unified Cannabis Enforcement Task Force (UCETF), the Department of Fish & Wildlife (DFW), and the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) have collectively seized over $316 million in illicit cannabis products. The first-quarter cannabis seizures from this year suggest that California’s enforcement actions will outpace last year’s results after task force agents reported confiscating $534 million throughout the whole year.

The estimated first-quarter cannabis seizures this year in California included:

• 212,681 eradicated cannabis plants

• 120,307 pounds of unlicensed cannabis seized

• 35 firearms seized

• $474,462 seized
  

Officials also served 99 warrants related to illicit cannabis activity during the same time frame, and 29 arrests were made.

Beyond the representatives from DFW and DCC, other agencies looped into the governor’s cannabis enforcement actions under UCETF have included the California State Parks, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, the California Air National Guard, and various local police agencies.