17.2kg marijuana seized in vegetable shipment at Motukea wharf
Police found 17.2kg of marijuana in 26 bags hidden among vegetables shipped from Goroka via Lae to a private wharf at Motukea, Port Moresby, and put the street value at K260,000. Half the container load had already been collected by its owners before officers inspected it, and no arrests were reported.
🇵🇬 AES wharf, Motukea, Port Moresby · Papua New Guinea
Police found 26 bags of marijuana weighing 17.2kg hidden among bags of vegetables at a private wharf at Motukea in Port Moresby on Saturday 26 September 2020.[1][2]The bags, weighing between 0.5kg and 1.5kg each, had travelled with garden food shipped from Goroka in the Eastern Highlands to Lae, then by Bismark Shipping to the AES wharf west of Port Moresby.[2]
National drug and vice squad acting officer in charge Sergeant Bruno Morgan said the drugs would fetch around K1,000 a bag at wholesale and about K260,000 on the street.[2]He said Port Moresby is the business centre where all the consumers are, and that seizures like this one keep happening.[2]
When officers inspected the container, half the cargo had already been collected by the owners of the vegetables.[2]The reports name no suspects and no arrests.[1][2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Police in Kokopo, East New Britain, seized 40 kg of marijuana in three green bags that also held Papua New Guinea Defence Force and police uniforms. The bags were found in the bush at Bitapabeke and Ulagunan after a group of young people fled; no one was arrested at the time. Police said the suspects' identities were known and appealed for them to surrender.
Gulf police arrested nine people after finding seven bags holding 125.6 kg of marijuana at Kikori on 13 July 2025. Police said the load came from the Southern Highlands and was to be taken by dinghy and road towards Daru and then Australia through Saibai, Cairns and Townsville.
Police reported arresting a couple and a taxi driver from Hela with 13 kg of marijuana that had arrived from the Highlands, and finding about 10 kg left unattended after a flight from Tapini. They were also investigating more than eight bags that arrived on an Air Sanga flight in May and disappeared from the terminal with the help of airport and police officers.
Police in Kiunga, Western Province, arrested two men from Western Highlands after finding about 18 kg of dried marijuana in two boxes at Rubber Corner. The boxes had been sent by Mail Express from Mount Hagen via Port Moresby; police put the street value at K90,000–100,000. Both were charged under section 3(1) of the Dangerous Drugs Act.