The abandoned jetty sits "far from civilisation" in remote Fijian jungle — fallen into disrepair and largely ignored by villagers living nearby.
So when local fishermen working overnight came ashore to find foreign men there, suspicions were high.
"No vessels should be berthing in this bay all this way in," said Niko Sucuvakaivalu, the chief at Vatutavia, a nearby village in the north-west of Fiji's largest island Viti Levu.
"It is dark and isolated, but it's also the kind of place where dubious activity can go unnoticed."
Mr Sucuvakaivalu and other village chiefs reported the suspicious activity along their stretch of coastline to Fijian law enforcement agencies.
On Thursday last week, police swooped, targeting what they call a suspected drug operation involving a "narco sub" — a type of semi-submersible vessel across the Pacific Ocean.
They allegedly intercepted a vehicle with two Fijian men transporting cocaine, and at the nearby Vatia wharf, police raided a boat and arrested four Ecuadorian nationals with more bags containing the drug.
Police allege they seized 2,630 parcels of cocaine, weighing 2.6 tonnes in total, with an estimated street value of about $780 million.
They charged the six men on Thursday, local time, with offences ranging from unlawful importation and possession of illicit drugs to unlawful entry and serious assault.
The men faced the local Magistrates Court in the quiet town of Rakiraki that day, which heard the Ecuadorians told police they had arrived on a low-profile, semi submersible vessel or — narco sub — which is yet to be found by Fiji's navy.
Those charged included Bainivalu Suguturaga, 26, and Munendra, 39, both of Veisaru in Ba — the location of the abandoned jetty.
The four Ecuadorians were Luciano Enrique Mero Sanchez, 46, Jonathan Javier Solorzano Bermello, 30, Ramon Isidro Vega Parraga, 52, and Alejandro Juvenal Yagual Gonzalez, 47.
State prosecutor John Rabuku told the court investigations had been progressing well, saying this was the second major case of its kind for Fiji authorities, who were learning from previous operations and becoming more collaborative and proactive.
Defence lawyers raised concerns about the treatment of two of the accused at the time of their arrest, alleging they were assaulted as they were apprehended. The court granted them medical treatment before they were remanded in custody.
Court documents show the Ecuadorian nationals were travelling on valid passports, several of which were issued recently.
Information from police sources also indicates that Mr Suguturaga spent much of his upbringing in New South Wales.
Locals encountered 'sailors' walking coast in the dark
More suspects are in custody and police are still investigating the alleged drug shipment.
The police operation followed months of intelligence gathering that began in July 2025, when the Fiji Police Force Serious Organised Crime and Intelligence Department identified a major drug trafficking operation originating in South America.
Police worked with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, and in December 2025, were alerted to intelligence suggesting a drug shipment was being transported via a narco sub through the Pacific.
The arrests mark a potential milestone in Fiji's efforts to curb the rise of international drug smuggling operations in its waters.
Experts say it's also a sign of a growing partnership between villages and law enforcement stopping a drug trade turning the country into a transit point for shipments bound for countries like Australia.
Before their tip-off to police about the suspicious activity near their homes, the villagers of Vatutavia had watched foreign "yachts" haunting their coast.
"These sailors come in the dark. They usually come in the evening, but they won't come ashore until late night around midnight or 1am," Mr Sucuvakaivalu told the ABC.
Village fishermen would encounter "European sailors" walking along the coast looking for shops, he said.
"What are they doing out here at night? Why are they looking for shops?" Mr Sucuvakaivalu said.
"That is why we've been curious and also concerned about yacht activity out here on our coast at night."
At the jetty, which once served a disused gold mine, their suspicions mounted.
"The access road to it is very far and the jetty itself is in the jungle, far from civilisation," Mr Sucuvakaivalu said.
"Sometimes we would run into them just sitting [there] when we come back late at night or early morning from night fishing.
"All of this information and our concerns, we have told the police … and also asked for advice on how to deal with this."
A 'force multiplier' for law enforcement
Fijian police made the arrests the day before a separate operation elsewhere in the Pacific, where the French Navy intercepted a suspicious ship in the waters of French Polynesia and allegedly seized a record 96 bales of cocaine weighing 4.87 tonnes.
French authorities hailed it as a sign of regional cooperation between France and its other partners in response to growing drug trafficking in the Pacific.
Back in Fiji, the country's police commissioner, Rusiate Tudravu, said its own operation in Vatia also showed the cooperation of law enforcement agencies through the flow of real-time intelligence.
"The successful operation came with its inherent risks, and I commend all involved for their determination in pursuing the targets, resulting in the disruption of transnational criminal activity in the region," he said on Thursday.
Police made the arrests only months after a court handed down record drug convictions over a plot to import methamphetamine into Fiji estimated at $FJ2 billion ($1.37 billion) in value that police say was bound for Australia.
The case involved a record number of Fijians to be jointly accused in a single court case.
It also detailed the equipped with superyachts, satellite phones and encrypted apps using Fiji as a transit point for methamphetamine trafficking.
But Jose Sousa-Santos, an associate professor at the University of Canterbury's Pacific Regional Security Hub in New Zealand, said unlike that drug bust, the police operation in Viti Levu's north-west last week resulted in arrests of foreigners involved in smuggling.
"This is one of the largest seizures that we've seen in several years in regards to cocaine," he said.
The arrest of four foreign nationals could shed more light into the tactics of drug traffickers in the region, Dr Sousa-Santos said.
The operation also showed that efforts to grow a partnership between police and local chiefs was bearing fruit, he said.
Under a pilot run by Fiji's Ministry of Police, authorities were engaging with traditional power structures and giving chiefs a semi-official role in law enforcement, he said.
"They're giving them direct lines to connect with law enforcement, so as soon as they are able to identify any type of activity which is untoward or which is out of the normal, they can automatically contact police, and we get a much faster response," Dr Sousa-Santos said.
"If we start to see that replicated throughout the coastlines of Fiji, where you reinforce and re-empower traditional power structures … then what you do is they become a force multiplier for law enforcement."
