The son of a senior pro-China politician from Palau was among ten people arrested in Fiji last week during a major anti-drug operation, raising fresh concerns about Chinese-linked criminal networks expanding their influence in the Pacific.
Lagomarsino Baules, 38, was arrested at a residence in Suva alongside Ginna Mukunghoa Choi, a citizen of the Federated States of Micronesia with known drug trafficking links, states the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
Choi, who previously lived in Palau, had been blacklisted by Palauan authorities in May and labelled an “undesirable alien” for alleged associations with known drug traffickers, based on a document from Palau’s National Security Coordination Office obtained by OCCRP.
Lagomarsino is the son of Hokkons Baules, the President of Palau’s Senate and a staunch advocate for shifting Palau’s diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to China.
While Baules has not been accused of any wrongdoing, he told OCCRP on Tuesday that he learned of his son’s arrest from the media.
“There is nothing I can do, he has not communicated,” Baules said.
