A coast guard-led task force raided a remote shed in Fengyuan, Taitung City, on 3 December 2018, catching a grower fertilising 794 cannabis plants spread over a hectare of rented farmland. The haul, then the largest cannabis case in Taiwan's history, was valued at over NT$230 million.
A task force led by the Coast Guard Administration’s Taitung investigation team, with shore patrol, police criminal investigators and Taitung prosecutors, raided a remote work shed in the Fengyuan area of Taitung City on 3 December 2018 and found a one-hectare “marijuana forest” behind it.[1]Officers moved in as the grower, a man surnamed Zhang, was fertilising the crop and arrested him on the spot.[1]
The task force seized 794 cannabis plants, dried leaves and drying equipment; at an estimated 300 grams of dried leaf per plant and NT$1,000 per gram, the ministry valued the haul at more than NT$230 million, calling it the largest cannabis manufacturing case in Taiwan’s history by plant count, area and plant size.[1]
The group had rented the farmland claiming to grow betel leaves, and the crop was approaching harvest when investigators closed in under the “Secure Homes” anti-drug program.[1]
Photos and video
Officers inspect the shade-netted cannabis plantation in Fengyuan, grown on rented farmland under the cover of a betel-leaf farm. Photo: Coast Guard Administration via Ministry of JusticePhoto details
New Taipei police arrested five people after a 29 October 2026 search in Sanchong and seized cannabis alongside several other drugs and packaging equipment. The investigation targeted a 45-year-old man suspected of supplying drugs who was wanted by a court and two prosecutors' offices.
Police raided a 900-ping cannabis farm behind an army aviation base in Longtan on 20 September 2022 and seized 4,218 plants. Eight people were arrested; prosecutors put the value at over NT$1.26 billion when they indicted the suspects that November.
Police searched 19 rented townhouses across Chiayi City and County on 22 February 2021 and seized 1,648 cannabis plants plus more than 4 kg of dried buds. Two men were arrested; police put the haul at over NT$500 million and later defended that figure after online doubts.
Prosecutors and police searched a mountain site in Guoxing Township on 6 August 2018 and seized 511 cannabis plants plus seeds and dried product. The detained grower had already been sentenced to five years for manufacturing cannabis and was wanted on a warrant.
