A new international taskforce to tackle serious and organised crime operating in the Pacific region has been launched.
Backed by four nations, the Transnational, Serious and Organised Crime Pacific Taskforce (TSOC) has been created to make it easier for member countries to jointly investigate and disrupt organised crime groups, target groups using small craft to move illicit drugs, and to share operational intelligence.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP), New Zealand Police, Fiji Police Force and Tonga Police have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, bringing the TSOC Pacific Taskforce into being.
Commissioner of the AFP, Andrew Colvin hoped the agreement would have a strong deterrent effect and send a clear message that the Pacific was not a safe haven for criminals.
“The AFP and other Australian law enforcement Agencies are already working closely with our Pacific neighbours,” Commissioner Colvin said.
“This agreement will see this cooperation go further and ensure the Pacific region is one that organised crime groups will find difficult to operate in.”
New Zealand Police Commissioner, Mike Bush said that in recent years there had been increasing evidence of cooperation between transnational networks and New Zealand criminals who were engaging in organised crime, manufacturing and distributing illicit drugs, as well as being involved in other serious crimes across New Zealand.
“While they are almost certainly complicit in these types of transnational criminal activities, their direct level of involvement is often unclear, but the harm these crimes cause to those in our communities cannot be underestimated,” Commissioner Bush said.
“We will be working diligently with the joint taskforce to identify overseas-based offenders to help bring them to justice,” he said.
The Joint taskforce is to take effect immediately.
