Gendarmes uproot 300 zamal plants, 640 kg, at a Saline-les-Hauts home
Gendarmes of the Saint-Gilles brigade found an open-air zamal plantation at a resident's home in Saline-les-Hauts, Réunion, during a search on 4 February 2016 and, on the prosecutor's orders, uprooted and destroyed nearly 300 plants weighing 640 kilos. The gendarmerie said two people were implicated and would answer for their acts before the competent court.
Gendarmes of the Saint-Gilles brigade found an open-air zamal plantation at the
home of a resident of Saline-les-Hauts during a search, the gendarmerie of La
Réunion announced on Thursday 4 February 2016.[1]The gendarmes uprooted
nearly 300 plants of all sizes and destroyed them, for 640 kilos, the
gendarmerie said.[1]The gendarmes uprooted and destroyed the plants that same
Thursday under orders from the public prosecutor’s office, Réunion La 1ère
reported.[2]
Two people were implicated in the case, the gendarmerie said.[1]The two
alleged cultivators were to be summoned to explain themselves before the
tribunal correctionnel, the criminal court, in the following months.[2]
LINFO.re reported the figures from the gendarmerie’s Facebook page the day of
the search, crediting Imaz Press Réunion with first publishing the gendarmes’
announcement.[1]Imaz Press Réunion reported the same day that a search at a
Saline-les-Hauts resident’s home had discovered the plantation.[3]Zamal is
the Réunion name for cannabis, whose cultivation, sale and possession are
illegal in France.[2]
Photos and video
Photo published with the report, captioned Gendarmerie de La Réunion, showing a cannabis field. Photo: Gendarmerie de La RéunionPhoto details
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Source: Réunion La 1èrePhoto captioned Zamal published with the Imaz Press report on the Saline-les-Hauts plantation. Photo: Imaz Press RéunionPhoto details
The 640 kilos is the weight the gendarmerie gave for nearly 300 uprooted plants of all sizes; the accounts do not say whether it is the weight of the growing plants or of dried cannabis.
No one is reported as taken into custody; the gendarmerie says only that two people were implicated and would answer before the competent court.
No charge, hearing date or court outcome was reported in the accounts used.
Imaz Press Réunion gives the total as 6490 kilos instead of 640, which appears to be a typographical error; this report uses the 640 kilos given by the gendarmerie and repeated by the other two outlets.
No street value and no precise area of the plantation were published.
The photographs published with the reports are credited to the Réunion gendarmerie or Imaz Press; neither outlet states that they show this field, so they are linked rather than copied.
Gendarmes searching a home in Saint-Benoît, Réunion, in an armed-violence inquiry found 193 cannabis plants spread over three fitted-out growing spaces, plus dried cannabis and ventilation equipment. The resident was placed in police custody on suspicion of drug offences.
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.
Police at Le Port, Réunion, destroyed more than 200 seized cannabis plants on the morning of 1 April 2026. The plants came from several drug-trafficking cases handled by the Le Port station in the previous weeks.
On 19 March 2025 gendarmes from the departmental road-safety squad (EDSR) found two illegal outdoor cannabis crops totalling 592 plants on Réunion, destroyed the plants and placed two people in garde à vue before summons to court. The sources do not name the communes.
