Cocaine bust exposes weak border monitoring systems

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THE confiscation of more than 600 kilogrammes of cocaine at Papa Lealea outside Port Moresby is only the tip of an iceberg, says former Customs Commissioner Gary Juffa says.
“This type of crime has been happening and will continue to happen if there is no effort made to build the capacity of the agencies responsible for monitoring and protecting our borders and communities,” he said.
Juffa said transnational crimes had been increasing since 2012 because there was no political will to address the issue.
Juffa, now the Oro Governor, urged the Government to develop the capacity of agencies to counter transnational crimes.
“We must move to enact laws to increase penalties to reflect the seriousness of these crimes,” Juffa said.
He said transnational crimes such as drug and gun smuggling and fraud not only damaged the nation’s image but also its economic prospects.
“We are also glad to see that police, customs and border security organisations are starting to rebuild themselves, protect the country and its citizens,” he said.
Juffa urged politicians to support the cause.
“Whenever you see something that is not right, be agitated, critical and continue to remind us of our roles and responsibilities as the primary guardians of our economy and nation so we can address them,” he said.
He also urged the police hierarchy to carefully and properly investigate the source and destination of the drugs and severely deal with those responsible.

3 comments

  • We’ve known that marijuana grows freely in PNG,,,can this story reveal where the Cocaine came from???

  • how come the radar system did not detect the plane and where did they get the cocaine from?

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