Fiji’s Acting Commissioner of Police Rusiate Tudravu has called on village elders and leaders in Kadavu not to be silent and join in the fight against marijuana cultivation in the province.
ACP Tudravu made this call as he addressed members of the Kadavu Provincial Council at its meeting on Wednesday last week.
Without mincing his words, the Acting ComPol said that where there was weak traditional leadership, there would be more criminal activities.
He said since the police operation against drug cultivation began, there had been 12 different groups of police officers that had been deployed to Kadavu.
And he noted that since January 2020 to date, Police had uprooted and confiscated 82,700 marijuana plants.
Speaking in the iTaukei language, he said there were only a handful of people being involved in the drug trade and the province needed to work together with Police to completely eradicate this illegal activity.
“Ni sa tabu ga vakalawa, da kakua ni tea. Ke o tea, e na lako mai na ovisa me mai vesuka ka cavuraka. (Since it is illegal, do not plant it. If you plant it, police will come to arrest and uproot the plants),” ACP Tudravu said.
He said to be able to move forward together in this campaign could only be achieved if the community and police worked together.
