Six sentenced to 1-3 years over 142 kg zamal at Sainte-Rose
Gendarmes seized 142 kg of zamal bound for Mauritius at Anse des Cascades, Sainte-Rose, on 31 May 2019 and arrested six men. The six were convicted in September 2019 and an appeal court confirmed prison terms of 1 to 3 years on 2 January 2020.
On 2 January 2020 an appeal court confirmed prison terms of 1 to 3 years for the
six men arrested with 142 kg of zamal at Sainte-Rose.[1]The six had first
been convicted in September 2019 after the 31 May 2019 interception.[1]Those
arrested comprised two Réunionnais and four Mauritians.[2]All six were placed
in custody and questioned after the night operation.[3]
Gendarmesseized142 kg of zamal, the local name for cannabis, at Anse des
Cascades in Sainte-Rose.[2]The interception happened late on Friday 31 May
2019 at Anse des Cascades.[2]The compressed cannabis was packed in about ten
airtight sports bags for transport by boat.[4]The consignment was bound for
Mauritius.[4]Authorities valued the load at 2 million euros on the Mauritian
market, about half that locally.[3]
The boat sent from Mauritius to collect the load escaped despite the gendarmerie
helicopter intervening.[2]Forty-five gendarmes from the Saint-Benoît company,
the research section and the GIGN carried out the operation after months of
surveillance.[3]The operation was a joint effort by Réunion gendarmes and
Mauritian police who had monitored the suspects for weeks.[4]The defendants
had faced up to 10 years in prison.[1]
Photos and video
Photo of the seized 142 kg of zamal in bags at Sainte-Rose.Photo details
Imaz Pressimazpress.comFRGendarmerie : six hommes interpellés avec 142 kg de zamal à Sainte-Rose
Open questions the AI reported
The submitted article's headline says five arrests while its body and two other outlets report six arrested; the report uses six.
An early Imaz Press account describes the six as four Réunionnais and two Mauritians, while LINFO.re and La 1ère report two Réunionnais and four Mauritians; the report follows the latter two.
The exact prison term for each of the six defendants was not published, only the 1-to-3-year range.
The sources give the interception time as around 21:00-22:30 on 31 May 2019; the incident date used is the 2 January 2020 appeal decision, the latest step.
Two suspects arrested in Mauritius and the boat later found at Flic-en-Flac are part of the Mauritian strand and are left out here.
Customs officers at Roland-Garros airport arrested a 20-year-old man arriving from Paris on 10 September 2026 with 37 kg of cannabis resin and 15 kg of cocaine. The court later found him guilty and sentenced him to five years in prison with continued detention and a five-year ban from Réunion.
The Saint-Denis appeal court raised the sentences of three of four men who ran zamal from Réunion to Mauritius between July 2023 and April 2025. The former chief of staff of the Sainte-Suzanne mayor and a second defendant drew seven years each, a third five years; the fourth term stayed at four years.
The Saint-Denis criminal court convicted all twelve defendants in the Réunion–Mauritius zamal trafficking case on 12 June 2026, jailing former Sainte-Suzanne chief of staff Bertrand de Boisvilliers for four years. Laurent Mariaye drew five years, and investigators tied the network to 147 kg of cannabis seized aboard de Boisvilliers's boat.
The Saint-Denis correctional court sentenced a 43-year-old British former English teacher to two years in prison with continued detention on 10 June 2026, after customs found 16.5 kg of cannabis herb in his luggage on arrival from Bangkok. The court rejected his account that he believed he was carrying computer servers, and he also faces a 214,500-euro customs fine.
