DEPUTY Director of Public Prosecutions John Rabuku says they have a set of police officers who are both locally- and internationally-trained.
Following the successful prosecution of the nine people implicated in the importation of the 4.15 tonnes of methamphetamine this week, Mr Rabuku told the media in Lautoka these police officers knew a lot about transactional crimes and the crime landscape in Fiji and the region.
“And, of course, we have an office of prosecutors like the DPP’s office who are in trial every second day,” Mr Rabuku said.
“So, at the end of a particular year, the prosecutor would have prosecuted or taken to trial probably more than 20 cases.
“In terms of running trials, the expertise is here in Fiji with our local prosecutors.
“And, I guess, from time to time, if we need special expertise in special cases, we can tap into the assistance our reserve partners can give us, like Australia and New Zealand and the United States.”
Mr Rabuku said many people did not understand court processes, adding that these take time.
“As a matter of fact, we are lucky with such a big case like this, it’s come to trial in two years.
“And it had some delays. It’s a lot to do with how we pushed to have this matter heard.
“Because it was such a large amount and we had to get the drugs destroyed within a reasonable time. We had to push to trial within a good time because witnesses leave and witnesses then do not want to come to court.
“You’ve noticed that most of our witnesses were immunity witnesses, also because the way to prosecute these matters, when it’s committed in a group, is to get the people from within because they know, nobody else knows.
“And that’s a trade that we do all the time, and, of course, the public in due course would understand it takes a lot of effort, a lot of work, and a lot of time to put these cases together to arrive at what we’ve arrived at today.”
