Taskforce team being set up to deal with transnational crimes

POLICE Minister Jelta Wong says the Government is setting up a taskforce to investigate transnational crime.
Wong said a government team was set up to investigate transnational criminal activities like illegal logging, firearms smuggling, human trafficking, money laundering and tax evasion throughout the country.
“Under the leadership of the Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Charles Abel, we have put a group of ministers together under Immigration, Labour and others. We have put a taskforce together to stop these illegal activities,” Wong said. “The first investigation was done in Goroka last month in which a mobile squad from Mt Hagen was involved in checking out a foreign-owned store .
“I have written to the police commissioner on the transnational crimes to see if he can put together a team and he is on to it now.”
Eastern Highlands Governor Peter Numu thanked Wong for the help given by the Mt Hagen-based mobile squad in raiding the store in Goroka.
During the raid they confiscated firearms believed to have been smuggled in, money and workers who could not speak English doing jobs reserved for locals. Northern Governor Gary Juffa raised concern about illegal logging in his province where machinery and vehicles were not registered by the Motor Vehicles Insurance Limited and workers who could not speak English doing jobs reserved for locals.