11 held, 800 kg seized in 2.5-ha Ambilobe cannabis raid
Gendarmes at Ambilobe found 2.5 hectares of cannabis plantation and nearly 800 kg of cannabis during a night operation on 10 October. They arrested eleven carriers, including three women, and destroyed all the seized drugs with the prosecutor's agreement.
During the operation at Ambilobe, gendarmes came across eleven suspects,
including three women.[1]They were all carrying bags filled with Indian hemp.[1]Officers arrested the eleven suspects and then placed them in provisional
detention.[1]
In the same operation the gendarmes discovered 2.5 hectares of Indian hemp
plantation and nearly 800 kg of cannabis.[1]The discovery was made during the
night of Wednesday to Thursday 10 October in the margins of the operation.[1]All of the drugs that were recovered were destroyed in full with the agreement
of the prosecutor’s office.[1]
The territorial gendarmerie company based at Ambilobe, in the north-west of the
island, found the large Indian hemp plantation.[1]The north-west of
Madagascar, described as known for growing and selling Indian hemp, had been
combed through by the authorities.[1]The operation had been launched after
months of national gendarmerie investigations in the districts of Ambanja and
Ambilobe.[1]The crop is Indian hemp, also described as cannabis.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Arrested
11
Area
2.5 ha
Cannabis
800 kg
Agency type
Gendarmerie, Prosecutor
Cannabis
Herbal cannabis (800 kg)
Activity
Cultivation
Setting
Field
Grown
Outdoor
Case stage
Under investigation
Sources
LINFO.relinfo.reFRMadagascar : découverte de 2,5 ha de plantation de drogues à Ambilobe
Open questions the AI reported
The article gives the operation night as Wednesday to Thursday 10 October and was published on 15 October 2019, so 10 October 2019 is used as the incident date.
The nearly 800 kg figure is approximate and no separate weighing or breakdown was published.
No count of the number of cannabis plants on the 2.5 hectares was published.
The names, ages and later court outcomes for the eleven people placed in provisional detention were not reported.
No separate hamlet or field location beyond the Ambilobe gendarmerie area was named, so Ambilobe town is used for coordinates.
Only one accessible account of this event was found after searching in French and English; figures attributed to L'Express de Madagascar are carried through that account.
Police detained ten students aged 14 to 20 on 20 October in a suspected cannabis case in Ambatondrazaka. Accounts disagree on where the detentions took place, and police were investigating who owned a bag of suspected cannabis.
Four Mauritian men were detained after their speedboat ran aground at Maharavo, Antalaha district, Madagascar, on 20 July 2026, and no drugs were found aboard. Malagasy and Mauritian investigators suspect a cannabis supply trip and are examining whether part of a cargo was meant for Mauritius; Mauritian police have asked for their extradition.
In an operation from 4 to 15 July in the protected zone of Mount Tsaratanàna, in Ambanja district, twenty gendarmes and four agents of Madagascar National Parks uprooted about 600,000 cannabis plants on ten hectares and burned 950 kg of dried cannabis. The growers fled as the patrols arrived and no one was arrested.
