{"id":203141,"date":"2026-03-04T02:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T02:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/203141\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T02:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T02:13:11","slug":"more-than-a-ton-of-methamphetamine-in-northern-california-drug-busts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/203141\/","title":{"rendered":"More than a ton of methamphetamine in Northern California drug busts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>More than a ton of methamphetamine was  uncovered during recent law enforcement raids of  drug labs in Northern California, representing one of the largest domestic drug seizures in U.S. history, authorities said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOperation Trash Panda\u201d  was executed   last Friday by the Sacramento County Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s Intelligence Narcotics Team and the Calaveras County Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s Narcotics Enforcement Unit. More than 100 law enforcement agents  conducted high-risk search warrants across three  locations.<\/p>\n<p>The first was an active methamphetamine lab in the  8000 block of Center Drive in Valley Springs, according to authorities. Nearly 50 miles south, a second site was located in  the 2000 block of Golf Road in Turlock, which law enforcement officials said contained all the equipment necessary to operate as a lab but was shut down  before production began. The third site, located in the  900 block of Reno Avenue in Modesto, was used by the drug trafficking organization to store and distribute illicit narcotics, which were being sold throughout Northern California, authorities said.<\/p>\n<p>Law enforcement agents seized more than 2,700 pounds  of methamphetamine, with  a street value of $4 million, \u201cwhich represents a substantial disruption to an alleged narcotic supply chain,\u201d the Calaveras County Sheriff\u2019s Office said. Law enforcement also seized  1,900 marijuana plants and more than 100 pounds  of processed marijuana.<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of firearms also were recovered, including handguns with images of Santa Muerte (a Mexican folk saint venerated by drug dealers), and  more than  1,000 rounds of ammunition.<\/p>\n<p>The busts led to the arrest of eight suspects on state and federal charges, including one  who was on the National Terrorist Watch List, authorities said. <\/p>\n<p>            <img class=\"image\" alt=\"Multi-Agency Operation Seizes Roughly 2,700 Pounds of Methamphetamine\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"690\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772590391_584_.jpeg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>         <\/p>\n<p>Some of the drugs seized in the Northern California operation. <\/p>\n<p>(Calaveras County Sheriff\u2019s Office)<\/p>\n<p>The joint investigation began  last October  after authorities found evidence of clandestine drug lab byproducts in an illegal dumping site in Calaveras County, they said. At least nine other agencies assisted in the operation, including the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p>Identities are being withheld as the investigation remains active.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than a ton of methamphetamine was uncovered during recent law enforcement raids of drug labs in Northern&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6577,6236,29157,7,9,8,94200,4744,94201,94202,94198,50738,17370,94199,346,2621,14476,59579],"class_list":{"0":"post-203141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-authority","9":"tag-block","10":"tag-calaveras-county-sheriff","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-california-headlines","13":"tag-california-news","14":"tag-drug-lab","15":"tag-evidence","16":"tag-joint-investigation","17":"tag-last-october","18":"tag-law-enforcement-agent","19":"tag-marijuana-plant","20":"tag-methamphetamine","21":"tag-northern-california-drug-bust","22":"tag-office","23":"tag-pound","24":"tag-ton","25":"tag-u-s-history"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}