Nearly 2,400 cannabis plants seized on Tahiti and Taha'a
Gendarmes found and seized cannabis plants in Papara on Tahiti and on Taha'a on 9 September 2013, counting 2,388 in all. Three men in Papara were questioned and summoned to court, while no owner had yet been identified for the two Taha'a plantations, whose 1,800 plants were burned.
🇵🇫 Papara, Tahiti, and Taha'a, Îles Sous-le-Vent · French Polynesia
Gendarmes carried out several cannabis seizures and plant destructions in French
Polynesia during the day on 9 September 2013.[1]Acting on intelligence,
gendarmes and municipal police in Papara on Tahiti found 160, 256 and 172
cannabis plants at the homes of three men aged 63, 33 and 22.[1]The three men
were questioned and, on the instructions of the Papeete prosecutor’s office,
summoned to a later court hearing.[1]
On Taha’a, in the Îles Sous-le-Vent, the local BTA, a gendarmerie brigade, found
two plantations totalling 1,800 cannabis plants.[1]Those plants were
destroyed by burning, and the owner or owners of the illegal crops were still
being identified.[1]
Across Tahiti and Taha’a the day’s seizures came to nearly 2,400 plants, 2,388
counted site by site.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Only one opened source reports this day of seizures; no gendarmerie statement or second outlet account could be opened.
The article gives no weight, area or value for the plants, so none is recorded.
The three Papara men were questioned and summoned to court, not arrested or charged in this account; no arrest or charge figure is recorded.
The article does not say separately whether the 588 plants found at the Papara homes were destroyed, only that the gendarmerie carried out seizures and destructions during the day.
No owner had been identified for the two Taha'a plantations and the article names no arrests there.
The total of 2,388 is the sum of the article's four figures (160, 256, 172 and 1,800); the article itself gives only 'nearly 2,400'.
The two seizures happened on different islands the same day and are reported together; the article names no district on Taha'a for the two plantations.
The page's lead image carried no caption, so no photo of the operation could be confirmed as showing this event and none is listed.
Gendarmes and Faa'a municipal police raided a home in Faa'a and arrested one person, who the Papeete court sentenced to 18 months of firm imprisonment. Officers seized 302 cannabis plants and 382 grams of cannabis herb, alongside methamphetamine and cash held in the same operation.
Arrested 1Charged 1Plants destroyed 302Cannabis 382 g
Gendarmes on the French Polynesian island of Moorea seized 375 cannabis plants, or about eight kilograms of herb, in a helicopter-supported operation on 20 March 2025. One person was identified and implicated; the operation followed a ferry-terminal seizure of 13 cannabis pots from two passengers arriving from Moorea.
A two-week operation across the territory ended with 7,419 cannabis plants destroyed, 17.2 kg of herb, 31.57 g of ice and 80 ecstasy tablets seized, and 15.7 million XFP in assets. Police implicated 395 people and held 45 in custody. It was an enforcement operation, not a change in the law.
Gendarmes found 4,629 cannabis plants growing on about 3,000 sq m of forest at Papara in western Tahiti on 27 October 2017 and destroyed them. They estimated the resale value at more than 800,000 euros; no arrests were reported.
