SYDNEY: Detectives have been sifting leads Wednesday (Sep 30) after a large drug heist in Fiji, trying to find dozens of cocaine parcels swiped from an proof vault and changed with baking flour.
Higher identified for gorgeous seashores that draw vacationers in droves, the South Pacific nation has turn out to be an unlikely stopover for cartels transport medicine from Latin America into Australia.
The police in Fiji seized 39 bricks of cocaine in a 2019 raid, every weighing round 1kg and wrapped in plastic.
Police Commissioner Rusiate Tudravu mentioned investigators observed seven bricks had gone lacking earlier this 12 months.
This prompted forensic testing of the remaining haul held inside an proof vault on the Excessive Courtroom in capital Suva.
Checks confirmed the cocaine as soon as held contained in the vault had been swiped underneath the nostril of police and swapped with bundles of flour.
“Based mostly on the invention of the lacking seven bars and the tampering of proof, it was determined to check the remaining parcels – which examined detrimental for any hint of illicit medicine,” Tudravu advised reporters on Wednesday.
Earlier exams carried out after the bricks have been confiscated in 2019 confirmed they held cocaine on the time, he mentioned.
“Fiji police is taking significantly the considerations raised by the federal government. And I give my assurance we’re tackling this investigation with utmost urgency,” Tudravu added.
Pacific islands similar to Fiji and Tonga sit on the crossroads of ocean-trafficking routes used to shift cocaine from Latin America.
The so-called “Pacific drug freeway” has lately been flooded with artificial methamphetamine.
This illicit cargo is more and more spilling over into native arms, feeding drug habit in communities the place critical crime had been uncommon.
Intravenous methamphetamine use has fuelled surging charges of HIV in Fiji, which was not too long ago declared a nationwide emergency.
