FIJI and the Pacific’s expanding digital infrastructure creates both enormous and significant vulnerabilities that could be exploited by transnational organised crime groups.
Pacific Program at Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime head Virginia Comolli highlighted this during the Pacific Transnational Crime Summit at the Fiji Marriott Resort Momi Bay last week.
“Cyber-enabled and cyber dependent crimes are another area of rapidly growing concern across the Pacific,” Ms Comolli said.
“This includes, for instance, online fraud, phishing, ransomware, crypto scams, identity theft, and cyber-enabled financial crime. Unlike traditional trafficking routes, cybercrime does not require physical proximity, it only requires connectivity and that is why the Pacific’s expanded digital infrastructure creates both enormous opportunities and significant vulnerabilities.”
She said criminal actors were adapting to these new digital environments.
“The expansion of undersea cable, mobile connectivity, digital payment systems, and satellite internet services bring major economic and social benefits, but criminal actors adapt rapidly to these environments.”
She said State-led activities and organisations were not spared from cyber crimes.
“There is also another dimension that we should not overlook which is State-sponsored or State adjacent cyber activity.
“Recent incidents affecting regional institutions and Pacific governments, including the reported breach of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat here in Fiji and the large scale cyber attacks against Palau’s government systems illustrate that cyber threats in the Pacific are not limited to financially motivated criminals.
“They can also involve cyber espionage, strategic instructors, and attempts to access sensitive government and regional information,” she said.
She said these incidences demonstrated that cyber security was not only a technical issue but also increasingly intertwined with national security, regional stability, diplomacy and strategic competition.
Comolli warns of online child exploitation risk
FIJI’s recent cases of child sexual exploitation raise serious concerns about the Pacific region’s vulnerability to organised criminal groups involved in online child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Head of Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime Pacific Program Virginia Comolli said while the region did not have enough data on these crimes it did not mean that it was not happening within each member country.
“This is an area we are particularly and specifically very passionate about and really wish to support any effort to combat this terrible, terrible crime,” she said.
“Historically, the Pacific is often being underrepresented in global data sets and online exploitation, but under reporting does not mean absence.
“Children are increasingly vulnerable to grooming, sex torture, coercion, financially motivated online exploitation and the production of child sexual abuse material.
“In Fiji, for instance, referral figures linked to child sexual exploitation material have raised some serious concerns about the region’s vulnerability.”
She said several increasing trends such as greater internet penetration, smartphone access, digital payment systems and the spread of artificial intelligence tools were used in the production of AI-generated exploitation material.
“Importantly, the distinction between online and in-person exploitation often becomes blurred, and an offense that starts online might lead to inperson abuse.
“And I will strongly argue that this issue should not be viewed solely as a child protection issue.
“If we look at the experience once again of neighbouring regions, online child sexual exploitation can also become a transnational organised crime issue involving transnational networks of criminals involving generating and selling child abuse material around the world, relying on digital payment systems and
encrypted communications, channelling funds to the financial system, and literally treating this heinous crime as any other revenue-generating illicit activity.”
Smuggled cigarettes, bigger crime links
THE seizure of more than 57,000 illicit cigarette sticks by the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service (FRCS) last year has highlighted growing concerns that organised criminal groups are expanding their activities across the Pacific.
Speaking at the Pacific Transnational Crime Summit at the Fiji Marriott Resort Momi Bay last week, Pacific Program head at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime, Virginia Comolli said the smuggling of counterfeit goods and highly taxed products such as tobacco and alcohol was increasingly linked to wider transnational criminal networks.
“Counterfeit goods and illicit excisable products, particularly tobacco and alcohol, are often overlooked in discussions on transnational organised crime in the Pacific,” Ms Comolli said.
“The same networks involved in trafficking illicit drugs are also being used to move illicit tobacco, counterfeit goods and other excisable products whenever profits are high and oversight is weak.”
Ms Comolli said the 2025 Global Organised Crime Index identified counterfeit trade and illicit excisable goods markets as established criminal activities in several Pacific Island countries.
She warned that counterfeit pharmaceuticals posed serious public health risks, while illicit tobacco and alcohol markets undermined government revenue and increased corruption risks at ports and borders.
The summit, hosted by the Fiji Police Force and Australian Federal Police, brought together 18 regional police commissioners to strengthen cooperation against transnational organised crime.
Financial crime, an ‘underrated threat’
FINANCIAL crime is one of the most underestimated organised crime threats in the Pacific region.
Pacific Program at Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime head Virginia Comolli said this included misappropriation of funds and trade based money laundering.
“These activities are not victimless; they directly undermine governance, public trust, economic resilience, and development outcomes,” said Ms Comolli.
“Importantly, financial crime enables almost every other criminal market. “Drug trafficking is profit driven, and organised crime groups increasingly rely on legitimate business environments to conceal and move
illicit funds.
“These include shell companies, hospitality businesses, casinos, logistics firms, import export companies and online platforms.”
Linking global trends to organised criminal groups taking advantage of weak regulatory financial systems, Ms Comolli said effective disruption strategies often began with preventing the movement of money.
“If we think about it, if criminal proceeds cannot be laundered, invested or enjoyed, then the incentives for criminals all decided are significantly produced.”
She added financial crimes today were mainly enabled by digital environments.
“I would argue that technology is transforming organised crime globally.
“Criminal actors are increasingly using encrypted communication, cryptocurrencies, AI tools, digital coordination platforms, and online financial systems.
“Meanwhile, many institutions globally, not only in the Pacific, but everywhere, continue to struggle to adapt and this creates a symmetry with criminal innovation moving faster than institutional adaptation.”
