Fiji customs and police have taken the captain and two crew-members of a New Zealand based yacht into custody after a search near Savusavu.
The search by Customs Officers led to the seizure of a large quantity of a mix of different ammunition types.
“Customs is the first point of contact for all travel and transit at our borders and we take this responsibility seriously,” Revenue and Customs Chief Executive officer, Mr. Visvanath Das said.
Yet again our intelligence and profiling processes are determining high risk vessels and collaborative efforts with our partners the Fiji Police and Navy has led to this successful seizure”.
“Just last weekend we discovered a massive drug find on an Australian based yacht and once again our officers dutifully exposed another smuggling attempt,” Mr. Das said.
“I commend the collaboration of the relevant Border Enforcement Agencies for their efforts in ensuring that our borders are safe,” he said.
“We will continue to work with local Border Agencies and Customs partners in New Zealand and Australia to ensure we continue to develop best practice processes and procedures to combat illegal trade,” he added.
The Commissioner of Police Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho said Fiji continues to quash the notion that a small Pacific Island nation will not be able to effectively police its borders.
“The latest joint operation is again bringing to the forefront the effectiveness of the interagency collaboration between law enforcement agencies both here in Fiji and with international law enforcement partners”.
“The latest seizures and interceptions made at our points of entry shows the increased level of collaboration between all agencies involved, and we continue to look at ways to improve the status quo so that those involved in these illegal trades will know that our borders are being monitored”.
Police investigations continue.
For more information, call Revenue and Customs Manager Marketing, Irene Miller on 9926170 and Police Media, Ana Naisoro on 9905999.
