Police found four cannabis plantations around Fiji's Navosa highlands in October 2004, uprooting more than 8,000 plants and arresting nine people. Officers warned growers of no leniency as the Fiji Times gave the campaign three articles in two days.
Police discovered four cannabis plantations around the Navosa highlands in
October 2004, uprooting more than 8,000 plants and arresting nine
people.[1]Acting Assistant Superintendent Kolinio Vunaki warned growers
they would be shown no leniency.[1]
“Police operations in drugs will never end,” Vunaki told the Fiji Times,
calling the raids a consistent effort toward a drug-free Fiji.[1]The
raids continued a Navosa campaign whose July phase had seen growers sabotage
police vehicles with nails strewn on roads.[1]The Fiji Times ran three
marijuana articles in two days, pairing the enforcement news with reports on
youth drug treatment and school drug plans.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The exact days of the October raids are unknown, so the report date follows the 29 October 2004 summary of that weekend's Fiji Times coverage.
Only the Chronicle's summary could be opened, since the underlying Fiji Times articles were not directly accessible.
A press-archive reprint of the Fiji Times account, which could not be opened, gives 8,032 plants from eight farms, so this report uses only the Chronicle's more than 8,000.
The nine arrested people are unnamed in the opened source, with no charges or outcomes given.
No photograph of the raids with a recoverable direct image address was found.
More than 8,000 plants believed to be marijuana were uprooted from two farms in the Lea farming area of Cakaudrove. The joint Northern Division Taskforce, supported by Republic of Fiji Military Forces officers, found the farms this week while police separately seized suspected methamphetamine and cash in Laucala Beach.
Police discovered a 1,500-plant marijuana farm at Vesivuru, Lea, and a 100-plant farm at Nawi, Tukavesi, arresting the suspected owner, a 38-year-old man, as nationwide operations continued on 29 October 2026.
Northern Division police uprooted 2,371 suspected marijuana plants from two farms at Nanuca, Savusavu, on 19 October 2026. A 38-year-old farmer from Drekeniwai Village was arrested over the alleged cultivation.
Fiji Police uprooted more than 11,000 plants believed to be marijuana from a farming area in Nasuva, Cakaudrove, on 2 October 2026. The farm's owner has not been identified and police were still trying to locate them a week later; the plants were seized for analysis.
