THE revelation that the Fiji Police Force has run out of space to store drugs and drug-related equipment confiscated during successful raids across the country is interesting.
It is in fact a shocking state of affairs! Police Commissioner Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho yesterday issued a directive for the acquisition of containers to store the illicit substances and plants.
They were brought in during the war on drugs over the past 14 months.
The temporary storage facilities, he said, would house the illegal drugs until cases were cleared by the courts and the substances and plants could be destroyed.
“We are running out of space,” he said.
The revelation is a concern for many reasons.
We can only hope it isn’t a reflection of the state of the drug trade in the country.
We certainly hope it isn’t as overwhelming as it sounds.
There are two factors at work here.
This could be a positive indication of the success rate, with police getting to the bottom of the drug trade, targeting the earliest part of the chain, at the farms, and the masses are being proactive.
Brig-Gen Qiliho lauded the public for providing information that had led to arrests and acknowledged his officers for the outstanding success of police operations over the past 14 months.
However, the revelation that in the past week alone, $31 million worth of cocaine was seized from a house in Caubati and a nightclub in Nadi was also raided, resulting in the discovery of an alleged laboratory used to produce illicit drugs, is cause for concern.
It raises all sorts of questions as well.
The drug trade, without a doubt, is obviously been seen as a lucrative one by people who are willing to risk a brush against the law. So it is encouraging to see our law enforcers being proactive.
Now apart from drug raids and interceptions, the force is also looking into the purchasing activities of drug trade suspects and their properties and assets.
Brig-Gen Qiliho made no bones about the fact that raids and interceptions weren’t the end of the battle.
That stretched to properties and assets.
“There are other areas we are pursuing like proceeds of crime and unexplained wealth from drug activities — people who obtain assets and property without any obvious means to do so.
It’s not just drug raids — there is a whole conglomerate of activities and operations that’s involved in this,” he said.
“I don’t want to go down in history as the police commissioner who never did anything about this or who never put a stop to it. At the end of the day, it’s about what our children and grandchildren will be exposed to in the next few years — that is the motivating factor that is driving me and my officers. We are passionate about it because we don’t want our children and grandchildren to encounter these things in the future.”
They are tough words from the commissioner fighting a war against a trade that has clothed and fed those behind it.
The police will need the backing of the masses though to continue to gain inroads into this illegal trade, and stop it.
That is a massive undertaking that needs our support!
