Guardsmen Sent To LA Are 130 Miles East Of The City Doing Drug Busts

Via Task & Purpose by Nicholas Slayton

California National Guard soldiers operating under federal orders helped the Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal personnel carry out a raid on a large marijuana growth operation in the eastern Coachella Valley last week, 130 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

It’s unclear how many National Guard troops participated in the operation, but the force totalled roughly 500 people. According to the DEA, other agencies included Customs and Border Patrol, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Immigration and Custom Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The search warrant targeted the area around Thermal, a small town in the eastern Coachella Valley. CBS first reported on the raid.

In a statement, the DEA Los Angeles Field Division said that it was the lead agency looking into three large marijuana growth operations in the area. Executing a federal search warrant from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California, they searched 787 acres of land and arrested 70 to 75 people, the DEA said, most being described as undocumented immigrants and at least one being an American citizen. It also appears to be the farthest east that federalized National Guard troops have operated since being deployed.

The National Guardsmen involved in the operation were soldiers with the 143rd Military Police Battalion and the 670th Military Police Company, part of the California National Guard’s 49th Military Police Brigade. They’re serving under Task Force 51, the organization created by U.S. Northern Command for troops operating under Title 10 status. Images posted by the military to the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (or DVIDS), show the soldiers carrying riot shields creating security perimeters next to their Humvees in Thermal and the nearby unincorporated community of Mecca, close to the Salton Sea.

Coachella city Mayor Steven Hernandez, who spoke with Task & Purpose on Monday, said that the troops and agents passed through or were active in several towns and unincorporated communities in the eastern Coachella Valley, including Coachella. He said that the city government started hearing from activists and immigrant rights groups that federal personnel were “knocking on doors” in the area.

“It was obviously a really big mobilization and strategy in terms of how many sites that would physically have some kind of presence,” he said.

The operation was one of the largest to involve troops in California since the Trump administration federalized National Guard soldiers and deployed them and Marines under Title 10 on June 7. It also shows the sheer geographical scope of that deployment. As U.S. Northern Command announced on June 8, the California National Guard soldiers were “placed under federal command and control in a Title 10 status to support the protection of federal personnel and federal property in the greater Los Angeles area.” The unincorporated areas of Thermal and Mecca, near the Salton Sea, are approximately 100 miles east of the Los Angeles County line, and even farther from the City of Los Angeles and the downtown Los Angeles federal plaza where the National Guard has been most visible this month.

Task & Purpose contacted Task Force 51 regarding the presence of National Guardsmen so far east of Los Angeles County.

“At the direction of the President of the United States and as ordered by the Secretary of Defense, the Department of Defense mobilized National Guard forces in a Title 10 status and active-duty Marines to protect the safety and security of federal functions, personnel, and property. The catalyst of this order was related to events occurring in Los Angeles; however, the president’s order and NORTHCOM’s mission is not constrained by the geography of Southern California. Recently, Title 10 forces supported a Drug Enforcement Agency operation a few hours outside of Los Angeles. Title 10 forces protect federal personnel who are performing federal law enforcement functions,” a NORTHCOM Spokesperson said in a statement to Task & Purpose on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump’s June 7 order federalizing National Guard troops did not specify a specific geographic location or boundary.

In a statement sent to Task & Purpose, the DEA said that “[d]ue to the magnitude and topography of this operation, DEA has requested support from multiple federal partners.” A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Field Division said that the soldiers on the scene created a perimeter around the area.

The area raided by federal agents and National Guard soldiers is part of California’s Inland Empire. The region, comprising Riverside and San Bernardino counties, is generally considered to make up the greater Los Angeles area, along with the Los Angeles metropolitan area and the Oxnard–Thousand Oaks–Ventura metropolitan area. That total land area stretches from the coast all the way to the California-Nevada border, even with the significant distance from the City of Los Angeles proper. The U.S. Census Bureau’s combied statistical area matches that, showing a nearly 34,000 square miles area.

Since arriving in the Los Angeles area more than two weeks ago, California National Guard troops have primarily focused on guarding federal buildings in Los Angeles County, including in downtown Los Angeles and the Wilshire area. They have, for the most part, stayed entirely on the federal grounds themselves. During large protests in downtown Los Angeles over ongoing ICE and Department of Homeland Security raids in the area they have not engaged, often staying back while local law enforcement blocked or clashed with demonstrators. Images shared by federal officials have shown some National Guard troops accompanying ICE agents on immigration raids to protect the often heavily armored and armed federal personnel, but the federal government has stressed that they are not performing law enforcement duties.

Roughly 700 Marines with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment that were deployed from Twentynine Palms, California, have been tasked with protecting federal buildings. So far, the Marines have spent most of their time standing in front of protesters that gathered at the Wilshire federal building near Westwood, 13 miles west of the Downtown federal plaza. They did briefly detain an Army veteran on June 13 after he crossed onto federal grounds on his way to the nearby West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus.

The Inland Empire operations involved the soldiers operating in the field and receiving briefings at the March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, per information published to DVIDS. Hernandez, the mayor of Coachella, said that the area had experienced DEA raids before.

“We’re not anti-DEA operations, we’re about community here,” he said. “But there’s a lot of fear here, I saw that over the weekend.”

He added that the amount of personnel brought in the raid was shocking. “To me, if their motive is to put fear and shock everybody, then mission accomplished. This isn’t supposed to be the new normal,” he said.

Update: 6/24/2025; This article was updated with a new statement from U.S. Northern Command regarding Task Force 51.

Correction: 6/24/2025; This article initially referred National Guard soldiers as belonging to the 143rd Military Police Company. They are with the 143rd Military Police Battalion. 

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