Marijuana farmers in Kadavu are getting more sophisticated as they are hiding their farms using camouflage material, utilizing drones of their own and setting up booby traps.
This was revealed during the briefing with Minister for Home Affairs, Pio Tikoduadua at the National Command Centre on the ongoing battle against drugs in Kadavu.
Police explained how they use drones to spot the plants, and how the marijuana plants are easily distinguishable but the drug farmers have now resorted to camouflage as they use camouflage netting.
They say the drone operators would be reporting to their ground teams on there being no marijuana plants, but the ground teams would confirm by pulling off the camouflage netting used to hide the plants.
Police say they have even come across booby traps and had they not noticed them in time, it would have seriously injured them.
In other cases, coconut leaves have been used to cover plants and hide them from the drones.
In terms of technology and sophistication, they have even come up against farmers with bigger drones.
For this year, Police have done one raid in Kadavu and have already uprooted over 2,000 plants.
