Acting Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Siromi Turaga says the illicit drug trade in Fiji is a genuine concern and it is causing damage to our families, communities, young people, and the integrity of the institutions that we have established to safeguard.
While speaking in Parliament, Turaga says the illicit drug trade is also becoming increasingly sophisticated and no longer a localized issue of domestic supply and consumption.
The Minister says it has become deliberately transnational where Fiji has been designated as both a transit point and a market by foreign cartels.
He says it possesses sophisticated criminal methodologies, encrypted communications, corrupting influence, and massive financial resources.
He adds cartels have identified local collaborators who are amenable, and they are no longer merely distributing narcotics into our communities.
The Acting Attorney General says they are currently exporting narcotics to Australia and New Zealand, where the demand for consumption is at an optimum level on a global scale.
Turaga says these nefarious organizations are not operating in isolation as corruption ensures substantial sums of money are transferred.
He adds that delegations of corruption that are frequently leveled against an enforcement agency in this country are not fabricated.
The Minister says in the narcotics trade, the most problem is a tight and stringent enforcement environment.
The Minister says the importation of substantial quantities of hard narcotics is currently underway in Fiji and it is not a speculative notion.
He says the Office of the ODPP effectively prosecuted the importation of 4.5 tons of methamphetamine last year.
Speaking on immunity, the Minister says immunity is a prosecutors tool that is employed to prosecute those who are more guilty rather than safeguard the guilty.
He says this is accomplished by utilizing the most reliable evidence feasible, and each immunity has certain conditions.
Turaga says those conditions must be adhered to by all accused individuals who receive it, and each decision to grant immunity is made with a single objective in mind.
He adds that the decision to grant immunity is not taken casually as they are created with the intention of achieving justice, not in place of it.
The Minister says the public discourse regarding the illicit drug has intensified and this is entirely appropriate as they desire action and outcomes.
Turaga says we will not combat drug trade by assuming a persona that is not our own.
Responding to the statement, Opposition MP Alvick Maharaj says while we celebrate the ODPP, we must not let this legal victory blind us to the glaring failures of this government over the past three years.
He says for 36 months, this administration has watched from the sidelines as the drug abuse has spiralled out of control across Fiji.
Maharaj says instead of deploying a proactive and aggressive national strategy, the government has consistently chosen to look backwards.
He adds that we are deeply concerned by the constant political blame game directed at the previous administration.
Maharaj says pointing fingers at the past does not remove methamphetamine from our streets today because the public did not elect this government to hear excuses.
He also says that it is embarrassing that the very institutions tasked with protecting our citizens have been compromised from within as officers within the newly established Narcotics Bureau are themselves being prosecuted for drug-related offences and corruption.
He adds that when the guardians of the law become the facilitators of the crime, it signals a catastrophic failure in the government waiting.
Maharaj says oversight and institutional integrity can also be questioned.
