It’s action time, says Minister for Justice Siromi Turaga.
Speaking after the launch of the much-awaited Counter Narcotics Strategy 2023-2028, Mr Turaga said the strategy was long overdue, and it was time to focus on the people involved in the trade.
“We hope that with close collaboration of our partners from Australia, New Zealand and the US, we are finally going to get some people who were involved to be held accountable,” he said.
“There’s no point going after small people, people on the streets, for 10grams. But what about the people who are involved, that’s what we are supposed to be targeting and for a time now, that’s what we have been waiting for.
“When will the police get the next big raid? When the people who have unexplained wealth from this business are held accountable, that’s what we are waiting for and we hope through this counter-narcotics strategy, that there will be some reaction out there.”
Mr Turaga said people from all walks of society must work together to curb the issue because the drug scourge was a “menace”.
He questioned the string of mysterious occurrences and suspicious deaths occurring around the country.
“If you look at the past two months, there have been many suspicious deaths. The recent one is a young man found in the Rewa River, and we want to know what happened.
“We are aware of a young lady (dying) in Lautoka. What’s going on? This is a red flag and the cops need to be out there.”
Mr Turaga said the military was willing to assist, however, this could be through the provision of manpower and not arms.
“We need to demonstrate big time how we are going to address (this). The fate of Fiji is at a crossroads.”
