It is encouraging to note that our police force will be elevating its efforts in the fight against green and white drugs this year.
As our report on Page 3 today highlights, Police Commissioner Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho said they have completed analysing crimes statistics from last year and have identified areas they would be focusing on this new year.
Brig-Gen Qiliho said following their analysis, drugs topped the list and continued to be an issue for Fiji.
With the Kingdom of Tonga having issues, the commissioner said it was too close to Fiji for comfort.
“So, this year you will see drug operations pick up in a big way as well — dealing with both white drugs and green drugs,” he said.
This was a never-ending fight, he said. He said it was important to consider “what our children will be exposed to and what will our grandchildren be exposed to”.
The discovery of 36 more packs of cocaine on the island of Makogai in Lomaiviti around the beginning of August last year attracted a lot of attention for instance.
Brig-Gen Qiliho said at the time, the force would be providing a boat to the Eastern Division to conduct raids and monitor remote and uninhabited islands around Fiji which was a great concern.
At first it was shocking that we had so much of this hard drug on our shores.
Questions will no doubt be raised about the effectiveness of our border security and surveillance and whether we are able to police this effectively.
Are we able to fight the influx of hard drugs into our nation?
Do we have the capability to police this effectively and prevent our nation from becoming a strong pathway for such hard drugs to get to bigger countries?
The Fiji Revenue and Customs Service (FRCS) and police are hoping Fijians in the outer islands will report suspicious activities out at sea or land to them.
The move to embrace community support must be encouraged.
We should be empowering people and nurturing a sense of ownership that, hopefully, will go a long way towards aiding our security arm to curb the drug trade.
This is very serious business that needs our support.
There is quite a lot of money attached to these hard drugs.
It is a lucrative proposition for some people who are prepared to beat the law.
We have a massive challenge on our hands.
Those tasked to look after our borders have a duty to do so.
We must have a united front in the battle against hard drugs and those who dare to bring them to our nation.
Brig-Gen Qiliho and the force need our support to turn the tide around.
