PACIFIC HAVEN FOR CRIME GANGS

THE seizure of 357kg of heroin in Fiji confirmed what police
intelligence was suggesting that Asian organised crime gangs were
entrenched in Pacific island countries.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty says there is no
doubt such gangs see the area as a platform to Australia.

"A warning bell was sounded last August when an Asian group allegedly
attempted to stage a 1.2 tonne shipment of amphetamine precursor
chemicals through Papua New Guinea," he said.

"And in October the AFP was involved as part of an international task
force with the dismantling of an Asian syndicate using Fiji as a
staging post for heroin and people smuggling and credit card fraud.

"There is also evidence of major criminal activity in other
comparatively weak Pacific island countries.

"Often these countries have very lax immigration regimes, in the
sense that officials are usually poorly trained and resourced and
sometimes corrupt.

"Such regimes provide opportunity for Asian criminals to base
themselves on Pacific islands and become involved in activities like
illicit drug smuggling and people smuggling, without being recorded
or noticed elsewhere."

Mr Keelty said the emergence of Asian organised crime in the Pacific
made it even more vital for the AFP to be involved in peace-keeping
missions.

"People don't immediately recognise the nexus between why we get
involved in peace-keeping operations around the world and crime," he
said.

"But, clearly, where there is a breakdown of law and order in a
particular society it does create a potential haven for organised
crime.

"The Pacific is a noted venue of money laundering.

"The activity is fostered by island countries with few resources to
sell other than their financial names.

"We have noticed a growing presence of Russian organised crime in the region.

"For example, we understand that the Russians laundered something
like $70 billion through the island of Niue in the South Pacific.

"We have seen evidence of major drug trafficking and other crimes
through Fiji, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.

"Papua New Guinea is not dissimilar to some of the South Pacific
nations in that you can island hop your way to Australia, so PNG is
an area of vulnerability for us.

"We have also seen drug and people smuggling come through the Torres Strait."

Mr Keelty said it was very difficult to get convictions when
sophisticated organised crime syndicates moved in to unsophisticated
criminal justice systems.

"Before we seized the 357kg of heroin in Fiji the head of the Fiji
drug squad had never seen heroin," he said.

"These external operations have highlighted for the AFP the
difficulty of staging offshore operations in countries where regimes
are weak and law enforcement resources poorly developed.

"For example, extradition to Australia is extremely difficult when
the legal and technical framework in the external country concerned
does not support the kinds of forensic demands made in Australia.

"Joint operations are also difficult where there is a substantial
technological and training gap between Australian law enforcement and
police in the Pacific. These are the reasons we get involved in
peace-keeping missions, in that having a presence adds value to the
criminal justice system.

"This role is especially important in Australia's near region -- a
region that some have come to refer as a zone of crisis or arc of
instability.

"There is a close inter-relationship between trans-national crime and
peace-keeping. This comes about because of the propensity of
transnational crime to flourish in weak or failed states, and the
important role of peace-keeping in helping to return such states to
stability.

"The nexus between poor governance and crime is obvious in countries
like Afghanistan, Burma and Colombia -- all with civil wars and all
with significant drug production and trafficking problems.

"But it is also evident in the case of our Asian neighbours, where
weak and sometimes corrupt regimes have become havens for all kinds
of criminal entrepreneurs."

Mr Keelty said the AFP was aware of crime syndicates which have
joined forces in using the Pacific region as a base to smuggle drugs
into Australia.

"We believe they have been responsible for a significant amount of
heroin that has been imported into Australia," he said.

"We surmise it is in the hundreds of kilograms. This isn't just one
syndicate. It is in fact a link between a number of syndicates
throughout Asia and the South Pacific.

"The deliberate strategy of the syndicates is to use countries where
there is a failed state, or a breakdown of law and order, as a
platform to get the stuff into Australia.

"They know they are relatively safe operating in these countries."

Mr Keelty said syndicate members also knew if they were caught in
Pacific nations they faced far less severe sentences than in
Australia.

For example, the maximum penalty for drug trafficking in Fiji is
eight years, compared with life in Australia.