Former Fiji Law Society President and Nadi lawyer, Dorsami Naidu says there needs to be a high-level investigation into the recent discovery of $2 billion worth of methamphetamine in Nadi, and he says it is time for the Government and the Minister responsible to seriously look into the issue of corrupt police officers and officers in other departments in order to nip the hard drugs problem in the bud.
Naidu says while the Australian Federal Police has commended the work done by their Fijian counterparts in the recent meth busts, he is reliably informed that it would not have been possible without the assistance of the Australian Federal Police hence the need for secondment of trained federal police to our CID and at the same time getting some lecturers from Australia and New Zealand for our Police Academy to pass on the necessary skills.
Naidu says it is apparent that our police lack the forensics tools and the necessary skills in detection and investigation.
He says it seems the political upheavals in the last 36 years have resulted in the police administration like most other departments, remaining stagnant.
Naidu says a joint operation by the local and overseas police resulted in the biggest meth lab bust in 2004 at the Laucala Beach industrial area in Suva after what he was told was a six months surveillance.
He believes such an operation can be carried out successfully again if there are no moles within our own police force.
Naidu says the possibility of a methamphetamine lab existing in the country should also not be ruled out by the police force because smuggling the amount of meth caught recently into the country sounds a bit impossible.
He says all the facts indicate that manufacturing is done in Fiji with the raw materials brought in legally or illegally.
He further says if four tonnes of meth was indeed brought into the country by sea, then it only reflects on the level of corruption that exists in the country that allows such easy passage.
Naidu says the Assistant Commissioner of Police Crime Mesake Waqa had recently been quoted in the media saying that people of interest in the two major drug busts in Nadi had gone off the grid.
He says this is after the police got wind that some of their own had provided information to suspects of the pending raid. ACP Waqa had said that his team was fully aware that the network was so organised that the persons of interest were also being tipped off by their very own officers before the scheduled raid.
Naidu says considering the big amount of money involved in such drug trafficking rackets, one wonders what the Fiji Police Force is doing to get rid of the moles within the organisation.
He also says learning that a suspect in the recent meth busts had been recharged for a hard drugs case for which the ODPP had entered a Nolle Prosequi also raises a lot of questions.
Naidu says this involved two kilograms of cocaine which went missing from the exhibit room of a police station.
No one has been charged in connection with the disappearance even though two police officers were alleged to have been suspended pending investigations.
Naidu is asking if we can be made privy to the outcome of the investigation and what is the basis of recharging them when the exhibit evidence is not available.
We have sent questions to Police. They are yet to respond.
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