Fiji police burn 81,000 marijuana plants held as Kadavu exhibits
Fiji police destroyed more than 81,000 marijuana plants, part of more than five tonnes of drug exhibits from 2018 to 2021, at the Kadavu Police Station incinerator in Vunisea. The Suva Magistrates Court approved the disposal after police filed 76 affidavits, and the Police Commissioner said the tighter process would stop officers taking exhibits.
🇫🇯 Kadavu Police Station, Vunisea, Kadavu, Fiji
Plants destroyed
81,000
of it destroyed
5 t
Fiji police destroyed more than 81,000 marijuana plants kept as exhibits from
2018 to 2021 at the Kadavu Police Station incinerator in Vunisea.[1]The
plants were part of more than five tonnes of marijuana held as exhibits from
cases on Kadavu between 2018 and 2021.[1]The Fiji Times reported the
destruction happened on the morning of 8 August 2022.[2]fijivillage reported
that the destruction took place on the morning of 8 August 2022.[3]
Police Prosecution filed 76 affidavits with the Suva Magistrates Court for
permission to dispose of the drugs, and the court granted the application the
previous Friday.[1]Senior police officers and representatives of the Kadavu
Provincial Council office watched the burning.[1]
Police Commissioner Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho, who was in Kadavu, said
destroying all hard drugs kept as exhibits followed the process of obtaining
court approval for destruction.[1]Qiliho said tightening the process would
stop officers taking drugs kept as exhibits and make the handling of illicit
substances transparent and accountable.[1]He said officers who work against
efforts to combat the illicit drug trade have no place in the force.[1]
Photos and video
Marijuana plants destroyed in Kadavu, photographed for the Fiji Sun report on the incineration of exhibits at the Kadavu Police Station in Vunisea.Photo details
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Source: Fiji SunMarijuana plants destroyed in Kadavu, a second picture published with the Fiji Sun report on the destruction of the exhibits.Photo details
No figure for the number of cases, defendants or exhibits covered by the 76 affidavits was published.
The weight is stated only as more than five tonnes, and the sources do not say how much of it was dried leaf and how much was plant material, so five tonnes is used as the cannabis weight.
No official or street value of the destroyed marijuana was published.
The Fiji Sun text gives both this morning and yesterday for the destruction; the 8 and 9 August reports describing the burning as having happened that morning or the previous day support 8 August 2022 as the incident date.
The Fiji Sun, fijivillage and The Fiji Times accounts closely follow the same police statement about the incineration, so they are not independent reporting.
The Fiji Sun photographs are captioned only Marijuana plants destroyed in Kadavu with no credit, and show exhibit plants rather than the incinerator itself.
Police with K-9 units arrested four men at Narain Jetty, Suva, on the night of 18 October 2026 after finding dried leaves, green branches and sachets believed to be marijuana in luggage of outer-island arrivals. Analysis was pending.
A joint Fiji Police Force and military operation seized 47,042 marijuana plants from 93 farms in the Northern Division, with 22 people arrested. Policing Minister Ioane Naivalurua announced the totals in a ministerial statement in Parliament on 26 May 2026.
Police in Fiji's Northern Division seized more than 7,000 marijuana plants, some over four metres tall, from a farm at Qaranibali in Vusasivo, Natewa, on 25 March 2026. A drone found the plantation during Operation Sasamaki; the plants were taken for analysis and police said three months later that no arrests had been made.
The Savusavu Operations team seized more than 400 plants believed to be marijuana in a raid at the Tacilevu farming area on 26 November 2024. The farm owner was yet to be known and investigations were continuing, with no arrests reported.
