The Flying Squad of the Anti-Drug and Smuggling Unit raided a house in Karo Kalyptis, in the Roche-Bois suburb of Port Louis, on Monday 31 July 2023 and broke up one of the neighbourhood’s largest drug sales points.[1] Three suspected dealers were arrested and were to be taken to court on 1 August 2023.[1] Officers found the drugs in a sports bag that one of the suspects threw out of a back window as they entered.[2]

The raid, carried out in the early hours of the morning, seized cannabis, cannabis resin, heroin and synthetic drugs.[3] The cannabis found was 493 grams of cannabis herb and 411 grams of cannabis resin.[2] The bag also contained 3.2 kg of heroin granules, about 2.9 kg of synthetic drug and doses of both, which are not counted as cannabis here.[2] Police valued the whole mixed haul at Rs 77 million (more than $1.7m at the time), a figure covering the heroin and synthetics as well as the cannabis.[4]

All three were provisionally charged in the Port Louis court on 1 August 2023 with drug dealing and returned to detention, according to Top FM.[5] The provisional charges were drug dealing with aggravating circumstances and possession of a dangerous drug for the purpose of distribution with an averment of trafficking.[2] Officers said they had watched the sales points for more than three weeks beforehand, working in plain clothes.[1] Karo Kalyptis, a cluster of shacks in Roche-Bois, is described as the epicentre of the island’s drug trade, a neighbourhood where lookouts often warn dealers of police visits in advance.[4]