Three jailed after 3.5 kg of cannabis seized in Tuléar
A routine gendarmerie patrol in Tuléar led to the seizure of 3.5 kg of cannabis ready for sale from a house. Three people were jailed, and officers also found 76 young radiated tortoises belonging to a couple living with one of them.
Gendarmes were conducting a routine patrol in the city of Tuléar.[1][2]Tuléar is
a city in the southwest of Madagascar.[1]The man whom the gendarmes saw
smoking cannabis in the city was 70 years old.[1]After questioning him, the
man himself led the gendarmes to his own home, where officers searched the
residence.[1]The search found 3.5 kilograms of cannabis that was ready to be
sold.[1][2]
Three traffickers were incarcerated after the discovery.[1][2]Officers also
found 76 young radiated tortoises in the same house.[1][2]The animals did not
belong to the 70-year-old man, but instead belonged to a couple with whom he
lived.[1][2]The gendarmerie and the regional directorate for the environment and
forests opened an investigation after the three people were detained.[1]
The tortoises were due to be released into their natural habitat.[1]The
species is protected and endemic to Madagascar, and these animals are a regular
target of wildlife trafficking.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Arrested
3
Cannabis
3.5 kg
Agency type
Gendarmerie
Cannabis
Herbal cannabis (3.5 kg)
Activity
Trafficking
Setting
Forest or wild land, Home
Case stage
Under investigation
Sources
RFIrfi.frFRMadagascar: 76 tortues radiées et du cannabis saisis dans une maison à Tuléar
LINFO.relinfo.reFRTuléar : 76 tortues radiées et 3,5 kg de cannabis saisis dans une maison
Open questions the AI reported
The date of the patrol and house search is not specified; 24 January 2018, the article's publication date, is used as the incident date.
No second full account of this event was found, so the facts rely on RFI's account.
The page's only image is an archival photograph of a tortoise seized at Roissy in 2014, not this event, so it is excluded from media.
The account does not establish whether the three people were later charged or tried.
No separate monetary value for the cannabis was reported.
Madagascar's national gendarmerie seized 371 kg of cannabis in Antsirabe and arrested three men, it announced on 17 February 2026. The gendarmerie said reports from residents led officers to bags holding the drug.
The Sofia gendarmerie reported 1,440 kg of cannabis in 114 sacks seized around Antsohihy over six months, with 10 arrests. The stock was burned on 8 December, and another 400 kg was seized the same afternoon.
Madagascar's gendarmerie seized an estimated 250 kg of cannabis at Antakalanabe during a night patrol; the suspected traffickers fled and no arrest was reported. The load was taken to the local gendarmerie post for destruction under a judicial decision, while officials said the trafficking routes remained under surveillance.
Gendarmes on night patrol at Ambodimanary, near Antsohihy, seized twelve sacks holding nearly 200 kg of cannabis after the carriers fled into the dark. No arrests were made, and the sealed load was stored at the Antsohihy brigade pending court-ordered incineration.
