Acting Police Commissioner Juki Fong Chew

Acting Police Commissioner Juki Fong Chew confirms that the Commissioners Taskforce created by the suspended COMPOL, Sitiveni Qiliho was disbanded after he assumed the post in January last year.

He confirmed this to FBC News following a report in the Sydney Morning Herald which claims that an elite Fijian police taskforce working with Australia and New Zealand to fight surging drug trafficking and organized crime in the Pacific region is suspected to have been secretly compromised by a powerful criminal syndicate.

The Acting Police Commissioner has confirmed that there is no Commissioner’s task force that is in operation today that reports directly to his office.

Fong Chew reiterates his stand that there is no place in the organization for police officers who abuse or are involved in criminal activities.

[File Photo]

He says those found to be involved in criminal activities will be investigated with all due processes followed.

The Acting Commissioner says he is committed to ensuring the highest level of professionalism and integrity of the policing profession, as expectations are for police to not only enforce the law, but more importantly, to follow the law.

The report states that Australian security officials’ concerns that members of the Fijian police commissioner’s illicit drug taskforce have been working for the powerful criminal syndicate are detailed in police files.

The report is alleging the involvement of a Fijian businessman.

It also claims that high-ranking Australian and Fijian police believe that by about early 2021, key members of the powerful criminal syndicate had cultivated members of the elite counter-narcotics taskforce created by suspended police commissioner, Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho.

The report also states that the intelligence collected by security agencies in Australia and Fiji identifies a taskforce official as the intermediary for the powerful criminal syndicate and responsible for directing a small clique of other police investigators to do the syndicate’s bidding.

Questions have also been sent to Home Affairs Minister Pio Tikoduadua.