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Almost $6m worth of drug seized in four years

September 23, 2022 9:47 am

[File Photo]

The Fiji Police Force has seized $5.6m worth of methamphetamine between 2017 and 2021.

According to the Crime Statistics Unit, 292 arrests were made between 2017 and 2021, of which 89 arrests were submitted with the weight of methamphetamine seized.

Police say a total of 11.23 kilograms of methamphetamine was seized from the 89 arrests which is equivalent to $5.6 million.

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According to the statistics, 92 people were arrested in 2019, 100 in 2020, while 43 arrests were made last year.

In 2017, 11 people were arrested while 46 arrests were made in 2018.

Police confirms that 39 arrests were made between January and August this year.

Commissioner, Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho says a lot of effort is being placed to deal with hard drugs.

“We have invested a lot within the Fiji Police Force with the recent creation of the Narcotics Bureau which previously didn’t exist, it only had small drug section. Now we have gone into Narcotics Bureau where we have to look at also training people, not only in the forensic science area but also forensics accounting so we can look at money trails and other things that are associated with narcotics.”

The local detection of methamphetamine was through parcels sent from overseas through freight and cargo stations to bond warehouses and postal agencies.

These cases were detected through routine inspections by Customs and the Fiji Detector Dog Unit which is a collaboration between Police, Customs and the New Zealand Police.