Second Rewa Street raid in 14 days seizes 20 sachets of marijuana; one held
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.
🇫🇯 Rewa Street, Suva, Fiji
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Police officers raided a house along Rewa Street in Suva on 11 June 2018, the
second raid on the same house within 14 days.[1]The raid found 20 sachets of
marijuana, after police found 17 sachets of marijuana during a search of the
same house the previous week.[1]A man from the house was in custody and was
to be produced in court, police commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho confirmed.[2]
Police said the raid followed information about drug-related activity at the
house from members of the public.[1]A man had posted a video on social media
claiming police abused their powers by cutting the locks of the house while the
owner was not present.[1]Police spokeswoman Ana Naisoro said the officers had
produced a warrant and identified themselves, and denied they were breaking in
or abusing their authority.[1]Naisoro said family members did not want to
cooperate, so officers took that action to carry out the search.[1]The
fijivillage account reported that officers had a search warrant when they cut
open the padlock to enter the house and seize the drugs.[2]
Many people living along Rewa Street had earlier raised concern about drugs
being sold from the house.[2]
The Fiji Times gives no date beyond "yesterday"; 11 June 2018 is used because the article was published on 12 June 2018 and describes the raid as the previous day.
Neither source gives the weight of the 20 sachets, a street value, or whether the material was laboratory-confirmed as cannabis.
Neither account names the man from the house, states whether he was arrested or charged, or reports a court outcome.
The Fiji Times headline calls the seizure 20 bags while its text gives 20 sachets; the report uses the text's sachets.
The two accounts differ on who gave the search details: The Fiji Times quotes police spokeswoman Ana Naisoro, while fijivillage cites commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho and deputy commissioner Rusiate Tudravu.
fijivillage also reported a separate raid on a house on Mead Road the same week; that is a different event and is not covered here.
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.
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.
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.
