Pure Cocaine: Fiji’s islands have been inundated with over 100 bricks of cocaine over the past several months, authorities have announced.
It all started with the Lau group of islands several weeks back when local forces seized 31 packages containing 40kg of the white stuff after it washed ashore. Soon after dozens more were discovered in Bua and Taveuni.
Ten more similar packages were found on August 30 and a further six washed up on a beach in Yasawa last week.
According to The Fiji Times, all packages are marked with the same symbol of a buffalo on a grassy pasture, and now police suspect more bricks could have washed up on other islands in the area.
Fiji police commissioner Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho said more than 100 packages labelled with the picture have been found on various islands and now Fiji’s Navy is teaming up with Australian forces to launch an investigation into where the hell the stash is coming from.
He said: “We’ve been working with the Fiji navy and we have been able to pick up a few equipment that we think the drugs were stored in before it drifted to the islands that we are picking it up from.”
General Qiliho added that the equipment was seized as part of their investigation and they are working hard “with our Australian counterparts in identifying this”.
As it stands, many of the recovered parcels were handed in by passersby and those involved in the probe have been urged to do the honest thing and call the police if they come across any suspect looking packages.
But of course, this is people we’re talking about and, according to The Fiji Times, some of the brown parcels had been tampered with by the time they reached authorities.
Police spokesperson Ana Naisoro warned members of the public not to go there, as it is cocaine in its purest form and could be harmful to the users’ health.
She said: “Another two parcels were discovered yesterday in the Bua Province in Vanua Levu and were allegedly opened by the people who found it.
“Any brown parcel fitting the description issued whereby a picture of a buffalo can be seen must be handed over to Police as soon as possible.”
Now it’s up to the Fiji and Australian forces to figure out where the stash is coming from and why it ended up on these islands – something which General Qiliho reckons is a huge mix up. He added that they suspect the load was dumped at sea destined for some other place.
“So we are working hard on finding the spot where this could have been done… We are working with our Australian counterparts with the capabilities that they have, for us to further investigate that area of the ocean where we think things might have been dumped.”
