24 Feb 2012

Huge cannabis seizure in southern French Polynesia

12:46 pm on 24 February 2012

French police have seized and burned 740 cannabis plants on the French Polynesian island of Rurutu.

They say many of the plants were more than four metres tall and their street value was more than 700,000 US dollars.

The police say they followed a tip-off and walked for three hours through dense bush to find the drugs plantation.

Last month, the French high commissioner, Richard Didier, said in 2011 the authorities seized 67,000 cannabis plants.

The head of the local gendarmerie, Colonel Valentini, said drugs were found everywhere in French Polynesian society, and in a way not seen in France.