Ok and you were in the stream today have the fiji islands become a highway for drug traffickers we explore how locals are bearing the brunt of the surge in pacific trafficking routes send us your thoughts by tweeting at age 8 or you can leave a comment in the you cheap shot and we will do our best to get you into the conversation. Is a drug route far from International Headlines about increased trafficking through the Pacific Region is creating a david and goliath slight problem for the police in several countries especially fiji hundreds of kilograms of narcotics being shipped from north and south america to markets in australia and new zealand after portably ended up on fijian shores leaving inexperienced Law Enforcement in a quick to curb the spike in drug related crimes now the look of the drug business in fiji has drawn some fisherman away from a trade without proper rehabilitation facilities Government Agencies admit that they are effectively 2 steps behind the drug gangs to help us explain the depth of the problem in fiji and the region in Sydney Australia kate lyons so reporter for the Guardian Australia and shes been covering this issue extensive late in Wellington New Zealand joe say susa santos is the managing director at Strategic Group asia pacific thats an International Security consultancy group. And in the United Arab Emirates saudi end up. Fijis ambassador to United Nations hello overweights good to have you here im im just going to show an interactive map from the Guardian Australia to secure us an idea of where in the world were talking about and how big the problem may well be so the drug route youve never heard of as a map of pacific drug busts im just going to look here from florida free colombia at an all the way across the pacific oppen to fiji and the nurse various stories about what is going on in these parts of the world ok can you give us one story that stands out that really explains fijis grappling with the drug problem about trafficking and whats getting even bigger. Great to be with you femi yes one of the one example is weve seen this increase trafficking of. Cocaine and methamphetamine is coming in through particularly through yachts and smaller vessels Leisure Craft and there was a huge bust a big bust last year and actually a and a strange man had traveled from latin america had packed. A number of kilos of cocaine as well as some methamphetamines some illegal weapons and a lot of cash on to his yacht and it was meant to be a sort of a sailing holiday with him and his wife you know just taking their time moseying across the Pacific Ocean but when they pulled into fiji they were it dinner out at the marina there which is on the west coast of the main island between police and customs. Bus at them and found that there was a number of cocaine packed into hidden compartments of of this yacht and thats increasingly a method that were seeing from traffic is because at that makes detection quite difficult because customs on a strict when youre sailing in for a holiday vessel across the ocean rather then carrying it on. On planes or through cargo shipments where customs are stricter this is an increasing that traffic is a using but this is a great example of Law Enforcement really working and and that man has been sentenced hes been sentenced to i think 23 years in jail so thats a long time hell be away for that trafficking operation jess a stream isnt he any team actually following kates reporting at the Guardian Australia i know you have as well i does that here the 23rd of june any 2nd wait to see your reporting kate on such a critical issue this is something youve been looking for for years but this Drug Trafficking with its been around for decades why in the hell is it becoming so much more lucrative than it has been before. Well actually this is something ive been looking at for the past 15 years. What weve seen over the past 4 years is a repping up of the amount of. Birth and for the means in kind being trafficked through the pacific towards strider new zealand i think the reasons why that is happening is we have an i was saturated drug market to be honest its so therefore syndicates and got cells in south america the usa linking up with the strains on silicates. And capitalizing on the drug markets in australia new zealand. You have some of the highest prices for drugs in the world so when you talk about high prices it is worth while if youre seeing some drug trade in that what the amounts that you buy the drug or you get that drug and Central South America and the amount that you can sell it for a new Zealand Australia thats thats impressive that thats exactly at the back the ports in south america for example in colombia you can buy. A kilo of cocaine for roughly 7 and a half 1000. 00 u. S. Thats what the last research showed by the same token once that can get to a straight or new zealand its jumped in prostitute 250 1000. 00 u. S. D. Comparing that you need not a states a kilo of cocaine is 50000 u. S. D. And in the United Kingdom youre looking at 60000 u. S. D. That is a huge profit margin for the syndicates and i mean that also means that i think one of the one of the biggest risks series is because they can afford to take it they can afford to lose a couple of consignments because there is such a large profit margin so every time that we see a seizure in fiji or in you know in talking or us. Morals provide lots of. Numbers and we think we were an impact. On how much drugs are coming through actually weakening silicates the reality when you look at how much they are in. The point of origin impact mostly because. I want to share this tweet with you ambassadors from berks in june. And says also known as the maids boyfriend on twitter you stand a better chance in this war if you have the fisherman on your side because truth be told nothing beats drug money its more and its mightier how complicit to you phil or how involved are the locals in fiji with the Drug Trafficking change. Do they have any. Agency in it or are they victims here ambassador. Thank you very much youre here is the 1st day insert just the one text this is just a is the state did it with the stated he was putting some lives in South Central america and markets mr lee and that the supply routes of the pacific and he stands on these and so they are and above countries and many many islands and. Evidence he was there to suggest but much much of the deeds of the lucky are your certain. Security we shared with water but single destination. Point 2 brain point saying their offerings. Across the islands across countries and between these regions and in f. A. Even if you get to believe if all they come into one thing different customs. Agencies say different but he said story sharon says well its getting to fun to be pretty as such effect as including. Their fisherman. Commercial preaching. But ones that suggest that theres a whole array. Of. Iraqi connections that are involved in these very long journey across the across the pacific bab standard bows and miles and. Say that the mission fisherman on hes not fishing and im not involved it means but let me. Make it one boat the ice years yes well this. Is a very small number of them maybe complete it. Is. Its points of contact very very good as we described to you shaw i had. This i was just for listening and please come back into the conversation. I had a sense that maybe she could be more proactive with the c. M. For to put my. Carrying out exercises regularly on boats and ships on the same get scanned as a x. Ray boats on the sea for carrots i just want to remind our audience the area that were talking about this is a huge chunk of ocean hey kate how possible is it i know you you were out there you were doing your reporting what did he say whats a place like that policing i mean. Its an enormous challenge its a huge amount of ocean to cover a huge number of islands thousands and thousands of violence and multiple jurisdictions were talking about you know more than 20 different member countries of the Oceanic Customs organization for example and each one will have different protocol different penalties for Drug Trafficking and so i was hearing from police that they felt like though they were putting so much of their resources into this issue and the Fijian Police commissioner who i was out on a patrol boat with estimated he spends its officers spend at least a quarter of the trying to tackle specifically Drug Trafficking not even the violence and other crimes that come about as a result of drug usage and they spent more than a quarter of a year on this and yet they still always feel like theyre a step behind and partly thats because of what they were saying before that this is sort of Law Enforcement is a sort of business cost to these syndicates they will factor in their spreadsheets in their planning that they will have to deal with police theyll have to deal with you know busts and that have to occasionally dump a consignment of drugs over overboard rather than be caught by police you know about the fact that in but the other thing to say is that police in the regions are hugely underresourced to be tackling such an enormous and enormous problem and an enormous well funded enemy that theyre up against when i was at record also there you go pretty easy. So i think ill just go back to the 1st tweet which i think links to what youre just saying as well ok let us know what one of the you know one of the points by the way it was no one not to go with the fisherman as the drug dollar is mighty and thats one of the issues that we saw you know when we start started. Really looking at. The crystal road. Through the pacific in this very specifically in beijing is that you have fishermen and members of the commercial sector behaving as facilitators for these drugs coming through the pacific. But what they are whats happening is theyre not getting paid in cash to get out in the percentage of the drug theyre getting through thats when we 1st started to see the growth of the local market in augusta methamphetamine just because i want to i want to pick up from there because this is a really important point because just because the drugs are being trafficked areas like fiji that is a knock on effect of those drugs going for and the way that the drugs and the trafficking is being paid for so i want to bring in something his actually spoke to she was doing how important it seems andreas shone hot hes a professor of criminal law of university of queensland impress upon a stranger have a listen to one of the impacts of what this Drug Trafficking which is having. The locals have a less. Trafficking of illicit drugs was because of the island needs are a new not a particularly surprising phenomenon seeing that the islands lie direct be along a Straight Line that leads from the main but using countries of cocaine in south america. In some destination countries such as australia and new zealand and wherever there is traffic is usually a high risk around all routes some people will come into contact with these drugs and Substance Abuse may occur. Got lots of comments in from fiji about drug addiction and also facilities let me start here ashika dios says i have people within my family or Social Circle addicted to meth ive seen the impact of drug addiction on their families and Social Circle misuse of money family in the great friendships deteriorating left abuse affairs and so on and then this one really important from ramiro he says we have one Mental Health facility and a population of almost a 1000000 the country doesnt have ect the expertise to treat addiction and the course to government for increasing Budget Allocation into Mental Health getting more expertise have failed ambassador you where the situation. Yes yes. Margaret her very aware and their Health Ministry in the us and the government its a holy spirit aware of the circuitry problem may be there but wild but there is a point against it more widespread and there it had larger proportion the crux of the story was very near the village. To hear how the bits of a gun in the National Health get revealed defect in disbelief and also meant difficulties. The tradition of the establishment. Which structured him. To him but i cite that get really used to deal with this state of problems that they have facing nevertheless so the government is quite focused on the base we are trying to build health it could be spending almost 2nd as well as force might get rid of these 50 local very local levels here in the bulls in the bronx shipment. Because the blogs have all of them show off. Anyones fault but youre the problem they said log cabin both yellow if we have the same. Country use you wont strain any. Longer someone in the Pacific Islands itself only and we probably need a much better and much more boarder need if you reach the chair. With a certain problem on all these ways both did very. Well everybody cheered him but many dont cite of previous president s and most men enforcement didnt. Care where their shipments were between stiction which is a computer. Hes rich oh my i hate that political response trying to say i cant ask the ambassador has to say that because hes a part of the Current Administration feature but what im thinking about is and lets be very clear about this how many drug issues to people in fiji have before this trial and the trials because if they have only one facility it will speak to perhaps they never had a tough problem before the stock became law so for. Well this is the issue fiji through the ninetys was kind of us. You know was the growth and the expulsion of cannabis and there wasnt really any serious Drug Treatment Centers to address this was what i was seeing in i think the drug problem the pacific and the response by oddness you know restaurant in new zealand specifically these markets drive this truck trying to have created. This issue is that there isnt a large investment in assistance at the Law Enforcement. Side of addressing the drug issue in the pacific Capacity Building for example funding for Fusion Centers which is well and good and its really required to be able to address this issue but were not saying the same you know just the funding towards Drug Treatment Centers in regards to support by sending drug to talk specialists from a strategy still in towards other p. G. Or the rest of the region and i think thats where theres a very big hole you know its very good for for the governments. Governments to to look into new invest in the sexy sort of big big budget areas such as Law Enforcement to and to get the you know the media time that they do you know seizures are being made and they have an impact but were not seeing the same you know dusting vesting. In the drug treatment problems issues i mean that coupled with the one that you just finished up which i thought i meant that coupled with with you know local pacific culture where you begin to avoid shame to the family you try not to. Let people know that you know they have family members which are on drugs. That that sort of creates the perfect storm we know where people you know move away from the support networks that they have within their there. Villages. And up looking for other groups. Youre echoing so many of the tweets that we got from fiji look at this one here Mental Health services are largely centralized in the capital only Psychiatric Hospital is located stigma this is what jay was saying is a big problem in fiji cultural religious police are often the reason people delay seeking treatment and Mental Illness is attributed to witchcraft curses as a whole or show by itself let me just bring you back into the conversation x. I want to show our audience something im quite naive so i do not know what what drugs look like when they were when they washed up on the beach but im not the only one fijians are also have the same situation so there have been some situations looking here the things ive been washing up wear for jeans do not know what these are and theyve been getting high up in using them these trucks for very bizarre. News is can you explain that just briefly before we move on yeah of course these are the slightly wild stories that come out of this trade and its not just peachy where this is happened is that there will be washed up is what they called by police drunks back big packages of cocaine for example washed up on remote islands there was a huge case last year in fiji more than 120 of cocaine washed up in one kilogram packages on some of their own islands. And in cases over the years there have been worries that people will not know what the drugs are and will use them in verse and they consume them so there was a case in their states of micronesia more than a decade ago where people are used it as Washing Powder until they realized that their cocaine wasnt mothering anything. But the shift has happened i was hearing from 15 police with these workshops last year is that no longer because because theres more information about drugs because theres you know Good Internet Service and it can. Without that people the danger isnt it that you know put it in a thinking it should never use it as part toothpaste or something right back anymore and the fear is that they know exactly what it is and they know its value and people hold on to it and look for a chance to sell it to make some money so bad that shifted and at least i was hearing from the Police Commissioner as weve been speaking has he been having this conversation people are watching this and got the same from sammy and sammy to Rocket Science to phillips head men in coastal areas and beating a walking but custom someplace in fiji they were pull anything suspicious they say this is resulted in some successful cases just like. It has and that is exactly what you know what with the strength the pacific is it that its buying caging with the traditional past doctors so you have you know Law Enforcement agency chapelle structures which are the backbone of the region to ensure that we have an impact and we can actually address seize these drugs before the syndicates arrival to make contact with. People in these villages and that leads us to another issue which is when when drugs wash up and then theyre identified you know were in the city because i did a file which villages these these drugs have washed up in dont try to get to these villages before Law Enforcement does to try to recoup the drugs. And in this city and weve seen instances where they would do well though use violence intimidation to try to get the bad the drugs back from the villages. And they also utilize the fact that currently fiji only has one trial but that thats active to be able to patrol its all easy so Police Response can sometimes take a little bit more time to do like you know and this is where you have Pacific Partners you know kind of best in regards to Capacity Building the customs of police in being able to respond much quicker stuff and for going to craft. Says possibly having drugs on board but also to be able to to go to get the drugs before they disappear through. To through the villages to to back to the city i see frys Ambassador Says half aging is the industry and the Pacific Islands look to counternarcotics operations within other regions such as the americas where we are looking to for help and for the model it seems that if the drugs are going through to new zealand and australia surely they should be helping it funding it. Sites do it on the Positive Side you have seen. Well disability could have been force but if you look 3 things much better and much more sophisticated intelligence gathering if you can prevent. Your sharing between australia and new zealand youre in and possibly get the details about shipment on shipment there but it is showing in their. Arrest and the tensions and that is a good sign hell be on the other side i dont say its fair to remember this sorry that this scale of the year which is not what 1700000. 00 square miles by cell. Phone me would be even to control that systematically day in day out. At the protest to be. A much better watch. Out again sharing. Much more formed busy up protest but calling. For domestic shows thats really at the height ok. These are here this is an important area in which partnership to train their new zealand and the old of the pacific all right im going to wrap up the average death. Theres so much more to actually taking from the reporting and the research that shows ive been doing a putting that kates going to have a look you my laptop at miss kate my aunts and you will look at snoopy to see some of the stories that shes been filing on to see this court high seas and god in australia in a sentence whats the best reaction youve had from a serious. Well one of the great things is that this is an issue that people feel has been met and is really significant back hasnt been discussed so much and one of the reaction is that oh just want to just try and i hate laugh at the sea and your sentence thank you so much more online at twitter at misc lines has so far the strain today a slow next time and so watching. 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