Aerial images of marijuana farms in Kadavu. Picture: SUPPLIED/FIJI POLICE
The war on drugs on Kadavu is a daunting task for police as community leaders are colluding with cultivators, protecting them from legal prosecution, police officers said.
While presenting at the bose vanua at Vunisea, Kadavu last week, police from the Kadavu Police Station said cultivators usually knew the exact day police intended to wage their operations in a particular village.
This, they said, was evident in how farms were cleared of marijuana plants before the raids. Corporal (Cpl) Ovini Burekalou told traditional leaders that when police visited villages, information was not freely forthcoming.
22 February, 2021, 8:00 pm
Plants believed to be marijuana that were uprooted from farms on Kadavu. Picture: SUPPLIED/FIJI POLICE
A total of 67,679 marijuana plants with a street value of $113,668,216 were uprooted on Kadavu last year.
This year alone, a Fiji Police Force report revealed that 17,742 plants with a street value of $28,679,682 were uprooted in wave one and wave two of police operations on the island between last month and to date.
The report was presented by police personnel at Kadavu Police Station as part of their Drug Report presented during the bose ni vanua in Vunisea, Kadavu on Friday last week.