Gendarmes of the Nouméa company dismantled a team specialising in cannabis.[1] Investigators of the research brigade arrested three people on 21 December, including a couple living at Mont-Dore, on suspicion of selling cannabis between Brousse and Greater Nouméa.[1] A 26-year-old woman in the couple obtained and transferred cannabis from January 2020 to December 2021, advertising on a social network with clients contacting her by private message or SMS.[1] Her partner admitted taking part in the enterprise as an intermediary who delivered the drug.[1] The prosecution sent all three traffickers through guilty-plea proceedings, comparution sur reconnaissance préalable de culpabilité.[1] The young woman accepted two years in prison with one year suspended, her partner was sentenced to six months imprisonment, and the third defendant received two years with one year suspended.[1]

A search of the couple’s home found two cannabis grow rooms and more than three kilos of cannabis, including 930 grams already packaged for sale.[1] What was seized at their home totalled 3.423 kg of cannabis, including 930 grams already packaged for sale, plus more than 80,000 CFP francs in cash.[2] A 44-year-old man living in Nouméa had supplied the couple since March 2020 using three small indoor cannabis laboratories installed in his home.[2] Officers found 2.9 kg of cannabis and 310,000 CFP francs in cash in his apartment.[2] The woman put her sales at 150,000 CFP francs per week, with monthly profit able to reach 400,000 CFP francs as the trade grew.[2] The Nouméa supplier acknowledged total profit of more than 2 million francs.[2] The couple said the proceeds paid for food and clothing as well as hotel stays and vehicle rentals.[1]

The court ordered confiscation of the seized money, the drugs and the equipment used for the grow rooms.[1] Nouméa research-brigade investigators had tracked the seller for months, monitoring her activity and compiling information on the trade.[2]