Police plan to use drones to detect marijuana farms.

This follows  yesterday’s discovery of a marijuana farm by accident in a Tamavua bush, opposite the Fiji LDS College by a Police K9 team on routine training exercise.

Acting Commissioner of Police, Brigadier-General Sitiveni Qiliho said at the scene that the use of drones would make it easier to detect marijuana farms.

“This is a possibility that the new technology offers us and we’re not ruling it out,” he said.

He said yesterday’s find was alarming especially when the man responsible was not frightened to cultivate marijuana in an urban area.

Brigadier-General Qiliho who watched the uprooting of 91 matured marijuana plants also saw a nursery.

The owner who claimed to be from Tamavua Village ran away when he saw the Police team, but was later caught by a Police dog and its handler.

Divisional Police Commander (DPC) Southern, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Biu Matavou said his men first came across a dummy farm that had only two marijuana plants.

“This was a usual ploy by marijuana farmers to detract Police from the main farm,” he said.

However, he said his men never fell into that trap as they found the main farm just a few metres from the dummy farm.

SSP Matavou said the owner had harvested some plants a few weeks ago.

The Police team, in the presence of the owner, uprooted 91 plants, to be tested at the laboratory in Nasova.

Edited by Filipe Naigulevu

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