Police detained a horticulturist at his home on Impasse des Basilics, in the Ravine-des-Cabris at Saint-Pierre on Réunion, over zamal, the Creole word for cannabis, grown under cover.[1] Inside they found 1,938 zamal plants that had grown in four months in a space fitted out for the crop, with air extractors, lamps and a blower.[1] Officers also seized 8 kilograms of dried cannabis heads, without leaves or branches.[1]

The grower, a 23-year-old horticulturist from Saint-Joseph who had just moved to Saint-Pierre, was taken into custody.[1] On 22 September 2016 he was indicted for drug trafficking and remanded in custody.[1] The public prosecutor of Saint-Pierre said the grower had himself claimed during his police custody that his was “a quality zamal”.[1] Despite his cooperation, investigators suspected he had not told the whole truth and that he supplied a wide network of dealers.[1] He said he had only just started producing zamal, but officers judged that the dried cannabis could not have been produced in four months.[1]

The Saint-Pierre criminal court tried the 25-year-old on 6 September 2018 for possession and trafficking of drugs and gave him 12 months in prison, eight of them suspended, plus a €15,000 fine.[2] The four months of firm prison had already been served in pre-trial detention.[2] He had no previous convictions before the indictment, was a cannabis user himself and said he had first grown the plant for his own consumption.[2]