Fiji targets drug networks with $284 million law enforcement investment

Fiji is putting $284 million behind a broader campaign against transnational crime and illicit drugs, with the stated goal of reaching beyond arrests and seizures to dismantle the networks that run the trade.

Bernardo Daveta, the permanent secretary for policing and communications, said the funding would help authorities intercept illegal drug shipments and pursue the organised criminal groups behind them. He spoke while appearing before the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence on Fiji-Australia treaties linked to the Vuvale Union and the Ocean of Peace Alliance.

The investment will support Fiji’s recently approved National Coordination of Transnational Serious and Organised Crime and Illicit Drug Enforcement framework. Its central body, the National Joint Enforcement Centre, will combine intelligence from Police, Customs, Immigration, the Counter Narcotics Bureau, the Republic of Fiji Military Forces and other agencies.

Australia will provide specialist assistance through the Australian Federal Police. The support will include intelligence, digital forensics, surveillance, financial crime and counter-narcotics expertise. Daveta said the long-term aim was to improve Fiji’s ability to identify, disrupt and dismantle organised crime and eventually make the country more self-reliant in responding to the threat.

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This funding must support the government’s recently approved National Coordination of Transnational Serious and Organised Crime and Illicit Drug Enforcement in Fiji. At the centre of that architecture is the National Joint Enforcement Centre.