Foreign crime syndicates, primarily from Asia and the Americas, are exploiting the Pacific’s strategic location to traffic illicit drugs and other contraband, according to a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) titled Transnational Organized Crime in the Pacific: Expansion, Challenges, and Impact.
Criminals at work in the Pacific, according to the report ‘include drug cartels from the Americas, who first introduced methamphetamine into the Pacific, alongside violent outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs) from Australia and New Zealand, well-networked criminal returnees, and highly entrepreneurial Asian criminal networks boasting diversified business portfolios, including drug and human trafficking, illegal resource extraction, online gambling, cyber-enabled fraud, and money laundering’.
As for drugs, whereas the Pacific has been mainly a thoroughfare for large amounts of cocaine from the Americas, law enforcement agencies are now making more significant seizures of crystal methamphetamine, the report states. The Pacific region is between the two main global source subregions of methamphetamine, Southeast Asia and North America.
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Rising methamphetamine use is alarming but not entirely unexpected, given the increasing illicit drug trade along major trafficking routes, said Matthew David Watson, UNODC’s lead advisor in the Pacific on transnational organized crime. He said: “We are also seeing a worrying trend of organized crime groups posing as legitimate businesses in key sectors such as hospitality and pharmaceuticals, using technological innovations to conceal their operations. This complicates the efforts of law enforcement agencies in the Pacific and carries implications for major markets in Australia and New Zealand.”
The report notes that while the authorities have observed several sectors being targeted by transnational criminal networks, ‘this has been most visible in casinos, junkets and hotel resorts used to conceal a wide range of illicit activities’. Organised crime groups based in Australia, New Zealand, China, Southeast Asia, the Americas, and Europe have been active in the region, often setting up legitimate businesses in the Pacific Islands to serve as front companies for drug trafficking and to build connections with government officials and the commercial elite, the UN agency says.
For the 180-page report, visit the UNODC website.
