Australian arrested as Vanuatu police raid Port Vila house holding 60 cannabis plants
Vanuatu's police drug squad seized about 60 marijuana plants from a house used as a nursery near Vila East School in the Independence Park area of Port Vila, and arrested an Australian national. Police were checking whether the raid was linked to an alleged drug lab found behind Mele Beach.
🇻🇺 Independence Park area, Port Vila · Vanuatu
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Arrested
1
Plants destroyed
60
Sites
1
Vanuatu police drug squad officers seized marijuana plants from a house in the
Independence Park area of Port Vila.[1]An Australian national was arrested in
connection with the raid.[1]The house, next to Vila East School, had been
under police surveillance for two weeks.[1]
Police said the building was used as a marijuana nursery, with the plants in
pots left to grow to full maturity.[1]Police found about 60 plants, grown on
coconut husks inside flower pots.[1]The plants were taken to the Central
Police station in Port Vila and then moved to another location.[1]
Detectives were examining whether the raid was connected to an alleged illicit
drug manufacturing lab found behind Mele Beach on the outskirts of Port Vila,
where another Australian was arrested and released on bail.[1]The
investigation continued with help from Australian Federal Police forensic
officers.[1]
The article gives no separate date for the raid; 16 March 2016 is used because it says the plants were taken to the Central Police station in Port Vila 'yesterday' relative to a report dated 18 March 2016.
The plant count is stated only as 'about 60', not an exact figure.
No weight, street value or charge for the arrested Australian was published.
No name, age or court outcome for the arrested man was reported, and police gave no further details.
Only one opened account was found; the original Loop Vanuatu article could not be opened and its PNG republication is the source used here.
The alleged drug lab behind Mele Beach, where another Australian was arrested and released on bail, is a separate matter mentioned in the same article and is not covered as an event in this report.
The article's passages describing how cannabis is grown indoors are general background, not findings about this house.
Police in Luganville found 135 g of marijuana in Bakon Etul's basket during a traffic stop on 22 May 2026. The Supreme Court at Luganville on 18 September 2026 jailed him for eight months immediately, treating him as a fourth-time offender despite his guilty plea.
Seles Stephen Rokasia pleaded guilty after police searched his Chapuis home in Luganville on 6 March 2026 and found 45.34 g of cannabis for personal use. The Supreme Court at Luganville on 18 September 2026 ordered twelve months’ supervision with a drug programme and 100 hours of community work, and forfeited the drugs for destruction.
Taho Bong was sentenced at Port Vila on 9 July 2026 to five months in prison, fully suspended for twelve months with fifty hours of community work, after pleading guilty to possessing 79.89 g of cannabis found when police broke up a disturbance on 25 December 2021.
Vanuatu's National Drug Squad rounded up 20 villagers on Malekula and seized 40 bags of freshly harvested marijuana in late 2006. The island's MP said growers deserved leniency when copra prices left families unable to pay school fees.