Four arrested after 9.8 kg of skunk seized in Antananarivo, three Mauritians
Madagascar's gendarmerie seized 9,822 kg of skunk, valued at about Rs 12 million, on 22 May 2024 and took in four people, three of them Mauritian nationals held at Tsiafahy. A Malagasy account says the three Mauritians were already serving sentences there and were sentenced to six months more over skunk trafficking observed at Toamasina.
🇲🇬 Antananarivo (search); Tamatave–Tananarive road; detention at Tsiafahy · Madagascar
Madagascar’s national gendarmerie, through its Antananarivo investigation
brigade, seized ten kilos of skunk, a high-THC cannabis variety, on 22 May 2024.[1][2]Four people were taken in: three Mauritian nationals and one Malagasy
citizen.[1][2]Police valued the skunk at about Rs 12 million, Mauritius’s own
currency.[1]The officers intercepted a man travelling from Tamatave,
Madagascar’s main eastern port, toward the capital Antananarivo, turned him back
and searched his home, where they found the drug.[1][2]The investigation led to
the arrest of Juveno Nafompona and the seizure of 9,822 kg of the skunk, two
vehicles, a Mazda and a Tiguan, and a boat named Masondrano.[1]The
gendarmerie said this type of cannabis is not grown in Madagascar but imported,
and is stronger than other drugs.[1]The gendarmerie asked anyone with
information on the case to come forward, calling the arrival of such hard drugs
a poison for young people.[1]
The three Mauritian suspects are named as Kenny Morvant, Kendji Issac Morvant
and Avoola Oddy, and they are held at the Tsiafahy high-security prison.[1]Madagascar’s criminal investigation section detained the three Morvants and
Avoula over skunk trafficking observed at Toamasina on 15 May, days before the
seizure.[3]They were already serving sentences at Tsiafahy, where they had
been held since March 2023 over an international drug-trafficking and
money-laundering case.[3]For that exit from the prison, they were sentenced
to six months in prison, according to informed sources.[3]Eight Mauritian
nationals were being held at Tsiafahy awaiting trial before the criminal court.[3]
The Antananarivo section de recherches, the gendarmerie’s criminal investigation unit, had been warned in advance on 15 May that the skunk was being moved from Toamasina to Antananarivo, and its officers stopped the car carrying it on the RN2, the road between the two towns.[2]The gendarmerie said the four suspects intended to export the skunk by sea and that they should be brought before a court.[2]
Photos and video
Photo captioned with the names of the three Mauritian suspects, Kenny Morvant, his brother Kendji Morvant and Jules Roddy Avoula; the page does not say where or when it was taken.Photo details
The Mauritian account gives the skunk weight as ten kilos in its first paragraph and as 9,822 kg in the account of the investigation; the report records 9.822 kg and keeps the ten-kilo figure in the text.
The Mauritian account calls the third suspect Avoola Oddy and the Malagasy account calls him Jules Roddy Avoula; the earlier 2023 heroin case named him Avoola Oddy, so the two spellings likely refer to one person.
The account does not say when Juveno Nafompona was arrested or where the two vehicles and the boat Masondrano were found.
No court proceedings, charges or trial outcome were reported for the four people detained over this seizure.
The value of Rs 12 million is stated in Mauritian rupees, but neither account says who converted it from ariary or how it was estimated.
The date of the L'Express de Madagascar page is shown only in its URL (June 2024), so 1 June 2024 is used as its source date; its navigation and links date from later years.
The L'Express de Madagascar photo is captioned only with the three suspects' names and does not establish the scene or date, so no event-specific photo of the seizure could be identified.
The account also describes the earlier 2023 heroin case and the abandoned boat Bras-d'Eau, which belong to another case and are left out here.
The 2424.mg account gives the consignment as 10 kg and does not mention the 9,822 kg weight used in the Mauritian account of the same investigation.
It does not describe the intended maritime route or destination, or whether the skunk was imported rather than produced in Madagascar.
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.
A raid on a house used as a depot and consumption lounge at Ambohimanarina, Antananarivo, found 35.054 kg of cannabis and led to 13 arrests: four wholesalers and nine dealers or buyers. All were jailed at Antanimora.
