THE Lau waters have become an active trafficking route for criminal networks.
The turaga na Tui Nayau, Tui Lau Ratu Tevita Mara believes networks may be consistently using the vast Lau waters to move drugs toward Australia and New Zealand with some parcels spilling on to their shores.
“It is a sign that the open ocean around Lau is being used as a highway, and that our isolation, which we have always treasured, has become the very thing that exposes us,” Ratu Tevita said.
“It tells me plainly that Lau sits squarely on an active trafficking route.”
Ratu Tevita said the repeated discoveries showed Fiji’s current response was “not strong enough” to meet the scale of the threat.
“Twenty-six parcels in a single find is not debris carried by chance.
“These cargoes are not destined for our islands; they are part of a larger movement of drugs across the Pacific toward Australia and New Zealand, and there are now warnings of submersible vessels being used along these very corridors.”
He said the parcels found on Lau shores were likely spillover from the movement of drugs through the region.
“But the size of this find shows how much is moving past us unseen, and how thin our monitoring of these vast, open waters truly is.”
He said Lau’s isolation had long been valued by its people, but it also made the province vulnerable to transnational drug trafficking.
“The sea that has always sustained our people is now being used to carry poison past our very shores.”
