Police Commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho travelled to Kadavu on 24 December 2018 to meet 11 officers deployed to Rakiraki for two weeks on a special drug operation.[1] Local community members guided the officers to the plantations and helped uproot the plants and carry them down rough terrain.[1] Fijivillage reported that Qiliho said several arrests had been made when the evidence was transported back on the Monday night.[2] Two days later police said no one had yet been charged and the owner of the farm had yet to be determined.[3] Police said investigations were continuing.[1]

Police uprooted 600 kilograms of plants believed to be marijuana near Rakiraki village in Kadavu during a two-week special drug operation.[2] Police put the estimated value of the seizure at $2.3 million.[1] The uprooted plants were transported back to Suva on the police vessel MV Veiqaravi on the Monday night.[1] Qiliho said the uprooted marijuana plants would be tested first before being destroyed.[4] He said police would have the material tested and then apply for a court order to have it destroyed.[4]

Qiliho said the police focus was not only on marijuana cultivation but also on the drug market, because growers would keep planting only while buyers existed.[4] He warned people involved with drugs in any form that police would get to them as the war on drugs continued.[4]