Police seize more than 5,600 marijuana plants from a Qaravutu farm
Fiji's Northern Division Operations Sasamaki team seized more than 5,600 plants believed to be marijuana from a farm in the Qaravutu farming area and took one suspect in for questioning. Police said the plants would be analysed to confirm what they are; no charge had been announced.
Fiji’s Northern Division Operations Sasamaki team seized more than 5,600 plants
believed to be marijuana from a farm in the Qaravutu farming area.[1][2]The
operation followed information gathered during an investigation into alleged
unlawful possession of illicit drugs.[1][2]
One suspect was taken into custody for questioning.[1][2]Police did not name
the person or say whether more arrests were expected.[1]The plants were taken
into police custody and were to undergo forensic analysis to confirm their
composition.[1][2]
The Fiji Police Force announced the seizure on 8 July 2026.[1][2]It said
investigations into the alleged cultivation were continuing, and no charge or
court appearance had been announced.[1]
Photos and video
A photo published with fijivillage's report and credited to the Fiji Police Force; the page gives no caption.Photo details
The police statement did not give the date of the operation; 8 July 2026 is when the Fiji Times and fijivillage reported it.
No figure for the size of the farm, the weight of the plants or their value was given.
The plants had not been confirmed as marijuana; police sent them for analysis.
The suspect was not named and no charge or court date had been announced.
No coordinates were given for the Qaravutu farming area, so the report has no map pin.
The same police announcement reported 76 cocaine parcels recovered from Lau, Qamea, Kadavu and Beqa and a separate package on Namena Island, events left out of this report.
The Nausori Magistrate’s Court acquitted two men of possessing 14 branches of marijuana found in a car stopped at Manoca in December 2024, ruling the drugs belonged solely to a passenger who had pleaded guilty. The court held the driver rebutted the legal presumption that drugs in a vehicle are his and acquitted a second passenger on the same basis.
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 in Dogotuki on Vanua Levu arrested a 23-year-old farmer on 10 February 2023 after raiding his farm at Qaranivai and seizing more than 4,590 plants believed to be marijuana. Officers from the Labasa Taskforce and Criminal Intelligence Unit carried out the raid, and police reported other drug-related arrests in the Northern Division that week.
Police raided a house on Rewa Street in Suva for the second time in 14 days and found 20 sachets of marijuana, after 17 sachets were found at the same house the week before. A man from the house was taken into custody and was to be produced in court; police said they had a search warrant, answering claims that officers had cut the locks of the house.
