Siskiyou County deputies last week seized some $273 million worth of pot in a raid that Sheriff Jon Lopey said proves “there is still a large-scale effort by many illegal growers to violate the law” in the county.

The raids Thursday and Friday happened throughout the unincorporated parts of the county, including in the Shasta Vista, Iron Gate, Mt. Shasta Forest and Klamath River Country Estates neighborhoods, Lopey said.

Lopey said deputies using 16 warrants found 21,758 illegal pot plants and 3,046 pounds of processed marijuana. The plants were worth an estimated $261,096,000, while Lopey said the processed pot was worth a relatively small $12,184,000.

[related_articles location=”left” show_article_date=”false” article_type=”automatic-primary-section” curated_ids=””]Lopey has said he’s cracking down on illegal grows because he doesn’t believe the county will ever recover if drug-trading gets any more of a foothold there.

The latest pot-seizure in the county comes less than a month after Lopey — weary of the “quality of life” issues he says numerous illegal grows bring — got the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors to declare a “state of emergency” about illicit grows.

The declaration paves the way for the county to get state or federal help fighting the problem, and Lopey said Friday that “additional resources are scheduled to arrive next week.”

It was not immediately clear what those resources were.

The latest pot snafu also comes shortly after another one involving Lopey — The alleged attempted bribery of him by two siblings who offered $1 million to help them get away with drug-trafficking, U.S. Attorney officials have said.

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