Major concerns as Fiji growing as a hub for drug trafficking and emerging base for transnational organized crime networks

Fiji appears to be growing in importance as a regional hub for drug trafficking and an emerging base for transnational organized crime networks.

A new UN Office on Drugs and Crime report says that Nadi is also believed to be the primary transit point in the Pacific, and trafficking groups bring their yachts from Tonga to Fiji, where the drugs are transferred to another vessel for further trafficking.

In January this year, Fijian authorities made massive methamphetamine seizures totaling 4.8 tonnes; the seized methamphetamine originated in Mexico.

It has been revealed that five known related shipments had previously transited through Fiji.

Fijian police have reported an increase in cases involving drugs, such methamphetamine and cocaine since 2018.

In 2023, the number of drug arrest cases involving the three drugs more than tripled, and amounted to 132 cases, the majority of which were believed to have involved methamphetamine.

The report has brought to the forefront the alarming rise in methamphetamine use across several Pacific countries, particularly Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Tonga, posing significant public health risks, and it also states that the Pacific is increasingly becoming an important trans-shipment hub and an operational and destination point for organized crime syndicates. The UNODC highlights how foreign criminal groups are capitalizing on the region’s geographic isolation, infiltrating legitimate businesses and using new technologies to advance their illicit operations while evading law enforcement.

[Identified trafficking routes of cocaine impacting the Pacific.]

The report reveals that foreign crime syndicates, primarily from Asia and the Americas, are exploiting the Pacific’s strategic location to traffic illicit drugs and other contraband.

The region’s isolation, once considered a barrier, now provides these groups with opportunities to operate in less-patrolled waters, facilitating large-scale shipments through ship-to-ship transfers.

UNODC’s lead advisor in the Pacific on transnational organized crime, Matthew David Watson says the rising methamphetamine use is alarming but not entirely unexpected, given the increasing illicit drug trade along major trafficking routes.

He says they are also seeing a worrying trend of organized crime groups posing as legitimate businesses in key sectors such as hospitality and pharmaceuticals, using technology to conceal their operations.

Watson says this complicates the efforts of law enforcement agencies in the Pacific and carries implications for major markets in Australia and New Zealand.

Deputy Regional Representative of UNODC’s Regional Office for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Benedikt Hofmann noted that transnational organized crime not only threatens governance and stability in the Pacific, but it also endangers biodiversity, natural resources and the livelihoods of local communities.

[Caught in the middle of illicit smuggling routes, the island countries of the Pacific are facing a range of transnational crime threats.]

The report calls for enhanced regional collaboration and coordination among Pacific Island Countries and Territories, noting that limited resources and capacities make it difficult for these nations to tackle transnational crime alone.

Hofmann adds addressing the growing threat of organized crime requires a coordinated regional approach and stronger international partnerships.

Regional authorities also report seeing some evidence of methamphetamine use and the early signs of local criminal syndicates in American Samoa, Samoa, New Caledonia, Marshall Islands, Palau, and Solomon Islands.