FIJI A PACIFIC PARADISE FOR ORGANISED CRIME - POLICE

Organised crime groups are targeting South Pacific nations such as Fiji to
aid in the trafficking of drugs and people, the International Policing
Conference was told yesterday.

The Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Mr Mick Palmer, said
sophisticated criminals were looking to work through nations where there
was "internal disruption or disharmony" and weaker drug laws to maximise
their chances of success and lower their chances of being caught.

He said intelligence indicated trans-national crime syndicates had been
operating through Fiji and other Pacific nations since the early 1990s.

Mr Palmer, who retires next week after almost seven years in the job, urged
more co-operation on a formal level between Australia and countries in
South-East Asia to establish conventions and protocols to cope with the
emergence of organised criminals and make a real dent in the heroin trade.

He said an AFP operation, codenamed Log-runner, which took place in Fiji
last year and involved police from Canada, the US and New Zealand, was an
example of such co-operation.

AFP officer Mr Richard Moses told the Adelaide conference that in January
2000, Thai and US police seized 126 kilograms of heroin in Bangkok and that
evidence from the operation had indicated heroin was being moved through
Fiji for forwarding to Australia and North America.

Thirteen days later AFP and US Drug Enforcement Administration officers
went to Fiji and the operation got under way. In September, 93 kilograms of
heroin were seized in Canada and one of the men arrested had a business
card which again linked the heroin to Fiji.

The joint operation was mounted in July, which presented difficulties as
the country was still destabilised after the May coup by George Speight.

On October 28 last year, the multi-nation force had seized 357 kilograms of
heroin and arrested 11 key syndicate members. That meant a total of 576
kilograms of heroin had emanated from the one syndicate.

Mr Palmer said intelligence indicated the syndicate had a tonne of heroin
to move out of the country. But while the operation had been a success, he
said that even if the leaders were convicted, the maximum penalty was only
eight years' jail. This was because Fiji's drug laws had never been updated
because the country had never had a significant heroin problem.

Later, launching a strategy for coping with electronic crime, Mr Palmer
said solving e-crime was "not mission impossible" but police would need
speedier responses to criminal activity to prevent the loss of evidence.

They would soon have to be just as competent coping with a "technology
crime scene" as they were with a homicide scene.

The South Australian Police Commissioner, Mr Mal Hyde, called for a central
cyber-crime bureau that could be accessed by all law enforcement agencies,
but Mr Palmer said more research needed to be done first.