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Mandailing Natal
Kabupaten Mandailing Natal
Regency
General
Coordinates0.75, 99.22
CountryIndonesia
Province/StateNorth Sumatra
Administration
CapitalPanyabungan
Cannabis documentation
Growing regions0
Growing areas1
Appellations0
Accessions0
Eradication campaigns0
News items0
Research items0

Mandailing Natal (Kabupaten Mandailing Natal, commonly Madina) is a regency of North Sumatra, Indonesia, in the far south of the province. Its capital is Panyabungan.

In the enforcement record Mandailing Natal is North Sumatra's large-scale cannabis cultivation zone. Every hectare-scale destruction reported from the province between 2020 and 2026 took place in the regency, most of it in the Tor Sihite hill complex on the border of Tambangan and Panyabungan Timur districts, where operations have recorded fields at elevations around 950 to 1,017 metres.[1][2][original research?]

Geography

The regency spans the Bukit Barisan uplands and a west-coast lowland strip in the far south of North Sumatra, bordering West Sumatra. The cultivation record concentrates in its interior hill country: reported sites at Tor Sihite lie in steep protected forest reached only on foot, with operations describing treks of five to eight hours from the nearest road.[1][3]

Cannabis in Mandailing Natal

The Tor Sihite record

The documented record opens on 30 August 2018, when the BNN narcotics directorate with BNNP Sumut, BNN Mandailing Natal, Polres Mandailing Natal and Kodim 0212/Tapanuli Selatan destroyed about 3.5 hectares at two plots above Dusun Banjar Julu, Desa Banjar Lancar, in Panyabungan Timur. BNN stated that both plots were first located by satellite imagery.[4] Two joint destructions followed in 2020. In June, BNNP Sumut with Polres Mandailing Natal and Kodim 0212/Tapanuli Selatan announced the destruction of about eight hectares across site groups at Gunung Tujuh and Tor Sihite near Desa Banjar Lancar and at Desa Suroboyan, put at roughly 8,000 plants.[5] In October a force of 122 personnel from BNN, Polri and TNI destroyed six hectares and about 25,000 plants across three sites at Desa Rao-Rao Panjaringan, in protected forest at about 1,017 metres.[2]

The defining operation came on 11 November 2023, when Polda Sumut announced that satellite imagery followed by drone verification had located about 150 hectares of cannabis across 18 points in the Tor Sihite hills, ten of them at Desa Rao-Rao Dolok in Tambangan district and eight at Desa Pardomuan and Huta Tua in Panyabungan Timur. Antara reported that the investigation began with the arrest of three couriers carrying 15 kg of cannabis, that police described the fields as run from inside a Padang prison by an inmate and that a landowner was arrested.[6][7]

Operations at the same hill complex have recurred since. In July 2025 BNNP Sumut and Brimob burned about two hectares on the Panyabungan Timur side,[8] and six days later a joint patrol led by Kodim 0212/Tapanuli Selatan destroyed about three hectares and some 30,000 plants above Desa Rao-Rao Dolok.[1] A Brimob battalion burned about ten hectares in the hills in November 2025,[9] and in May 2026 police found a further three-hectare field of about 3,000 plants on the hill, reached after a trek of about eight hours.[3] The operations of 2020 to 2026 all fall within the same named hill complex.

Trafficking and sentencing

Reporting names Mandailing Natal as a source for cannabis moving north and east out of the province. In April 2026 Polda Sumut seized about 151 kg on the Siantar to Parapat road from a driver who, per the police account, said the load came from Mandailing Natal.[10] In July 2026 the Medan district court sentenced a courier to 20 years' imprisonment for transporting 56.13 kg of cannabis from Mandailing Natal to Medan; the prosecution had sought a life sentence and both sides appealed.[11]

Growing Areas

Growing AreaHas growing regionHas conservation status
Tor SihiteNorthern SumatraEndangered

Accessions

No accessions documented yet.

Recent news

ArticleDateCategory
News:2026-05-30/Enforcement/police-find-three-hectare-cannabis-field-on-tor-sihite-hill-in-mandailing-natal30 May 2026Eradication
News:2025-11-12/Enforcement/brimob-battalion-burns-ten-hectares-of-cannabis-in-the-tor-sihite-hills12 November 2025Eradication
News:2025-07-29/Enforcement/joint-patrol-destroys-three-hectares-with-about-30-000-cannabis-plants-on-tor-sihite-hill29 July 2025Eradication
News:2025-07-23/Enforcement/bnnp-sumut-and-brimob-burn-two-hectares-of-cannabis-at-tor-sihite23 July 2025Eradication
News:2023-11-11/Enforcement/satellite-imagery-leads-polda-sumut-to-150-hectares-of-cannabis-at-tor-sihite11 November 2023Eradication
News:2020-10-01/Enforcement/joint-force-of-122-personnel-destroys-six-hectares-of-cannabis-at-rao-rao-panjaringan1 October 2020Eradication
News:2020-06-10/Enforcement/bnnp-sumut-burns-eight-hectares-of-cannabis-across-three-site-groups-in-mandailing-natal10 June 2020Eradication

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Ada 3 Hektare Ladang Ganja di Ketinggian 950 MDPL Perbukitan Tor Sihite". detikSumbagsel (in Bahasa Indonesia). 30 July 2025. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
  2. 2.0 2.1 "Petugas Gabungan Musnahkan 6 Hektar Lahan Ganja di Mandailing Natal". BNN (in Bahasa Indonesia). Badan Narkotika Nasional. 2 October 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
  3. 3.0 3.1 "Polisi Temukan 3 Hektare Ladang Ganja di Madina". detikSumut (in Bahasa Indonesia). 31 May 2026. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
  4. "BNN musnahkan ladang ganja di Pengunungan Tor Sihite - Sumatera Utara". BNN (in Bahasa Indonesia). Badan Narkotika Nasional. 30 August 2018. Retrieved 15 September 2026.
  5. "BNN Sumut Musnahkan 8 Hektare Ladang Ganja di Mandailing Natal". Liputan6 (in Bahasa Indonesia). 11 June 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
  6. "Perburuan ratusan hektare ladang ganja di Madina gunakan teknologi citra satelit". Antara News Sumatera Utara (in Bahasa Indonesia). Antara. 13 November 2023. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
  7. "Ladang Ganja Seluas 150 Hektare Ditemukan di Mandailing Natal". Beritasatu (in Bahasa Indonesia). 12 November 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2026.
  8. "Bersama Brimob, BNNP Sumut Musnahkan Ladang Ganja Dua Hektare di Madina". Tribratanews Polda Sumut (in Bahasa Indonesia). July 2025. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
  9. "Brimob Sumut musnahkan 10 hektare ladang ganja di Mandailing Natal". Antara News (in Bahasa Indonesia). Antara. 13 November 2025. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
  10. "Polda Sumut Berhasil Gagalkan Peredaran 72 Kg Sabu dan 151 Kg Ganja". Swara Hati Rakyat (in Bahasa Indonesia). 29 April 2026. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
  11. "Hakim PN Medan vonis kurir 56,13 kilogram ganja 20 tahun penjara". Antara News (in Bahasa Indonesia). Antara. 29 July 2026. Retrieved 8 August 2026.