The Pacific region is increasingly used as a transhipment point for illicit goods destined for New Zealand and Australia. Photo: AFP Photo / Colombian National Navy
Pacific Island nations are at risk of becoming "narco-states", the chair of New Zealand's Ministerial Advisory Group on transnational and serious organised crime says.
Steve Symon told Pacific Waves that drugs pass through the Pacific region to reach lucrative markets such as New Zealand and Australia.
"What's happened is that in trying to reach New Zealand and Australia, we've opened up drug routes through the Pacific, which has seen a rise in the methamphetamine use in places such as Fiji and Tonga," Symon said.
"If we continue with business as usual, we will continue to go backwards. Places like Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Rarotonga [which] are vulnerable because of their size and because of economic difficulties, those countries are at risk of becoming narco-states."
Symon said a nation becoming a narco-state would mean organised crime corrupting government organisations, like the police, customs and other border agencies.
The final report from the advisory group to the New Zealand government titled, Lead boldly, act decisively: Tackling and dismantling organised crime , said addressing organised crime in New Zealand would contribute positively to regional stability.
"The Pacific region is a particular focus. It is increasingly used as a transhipment point for illicit goods destined for New Zealand," the report said.
It said organised crime is "one of the most significant threats" to New Zealand which could not be "understated or underestimated".
Steve Symon said a nation becoming a narco-state would mean organised crime corrupting government organisations. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro
Symon said New Zealand had a "moral obligation" to support the Pacific.
"New Zealand is so connected to our Pacific nation, everyone's got family or friends who are from the Pacific.
"If you're looking purely from a New Zealand centric approach, our borders really reach there. The drugs that are coming to New Zealand, Australia are passing through there. So really, we need to reach out and stop things coming through the Pacific.
"There's some great work being done in the Pacific, and there's some really passionate people working in the Pacific, but we really need to help coordinate and pull them together so that we have a coordinated fight."
Call for NZ and Aus step up
José Sousa-Santos, associate professor of practice and head of the University of Canterbury's Pacific Regional Security Hub, said there is no excuse for New Zealand and Australia to be "counting dollars and cents" when it comes to supporting the region amid the current drug threat.
"The Pacific would not have this drug problem or an issue with traditional organised crime, if it wasn't for New Zealand's and Australia's drug markets and its hunger for illicit drugs," Sousa-Santos said.
He said Australia and New Zealand call themselves part of the Pacific family but deport criminals to the Pacific with no job prospects or cultural understanding.
"And of course, a percentage of those deportees will turn to crime, reach back into their contacts in Australia, New Zealand, and exacerbate the situation."
Sousa-Santos said 501 deportees who have come from Australia to New Zealand had required law enforcement agencies to strengthen their response.
"If a country like New Zealand, with the resources that it has in law enforcement, is struggling to deal with the 501 deportees from Australia, one can only imagine the impact that deportees from New Zealand and Australia are having in small island states."
José Sousa-Santos Photo: Jose Sousa-Santos/Twitter
Risk of fentanyl in the Pacific
The report also warned of a "new scourge" in the form of the synthetic opioid fentanyl. It said New Zealand should be "throwing the kitchen sink" at stopping it from taking hold.
Between October 2023 and September 2024, there were about 87000 opioid-related deaths in the United States.
"Many believe that for New Zealand it is a matter of when, not if," the report said.
Sousa-Santos said small amounts of fentanyl had already been found in wastewater testing in Fiji and Solomon Islands.
"If you ask me one thing that will keep me up at night, it's definitely fentanyl," he said.
"Most experts looking at the Pacific see fentanyl as the next wave coming to the region. I don't think the Pacific quite understands the risk and the damage that fentanyl will do.
"One of the points that I always make is methamphetamines has an impact on communities, on society, mental health, but fentanyl kills and I think that's about as clear as one can make it."
Symon said the social and emotional costs of fentanyl reaching the Pacific and New Zealand would be huge.
"I was talking to some people from America, and they were trying to give an example, saying, you know, we had concerns about covid, but fentanyl is just 100 times worse."
He said the lucrative market for methamphetamine was likely why fentanyl had not arrived yet in New Zealand.
'Genie not out of the bottle'
Sousa-Santos does not think the Pacific is at risk of becoming narco-states, similar to what is seen in central American countries, but it could still be a semi-narco region, where criminal entities have "undue influence" over state institutions.
He said it is not too late to turn around the current state of drug use in the region.
"The genie is definitely not out of the bottle, the red flags, well and truly waving."
Sousa-Santos said low population numbers, in most Pacific nations, makes it easier to address drug problems.
He said the traditional power structures, like the church and chiefly systems is where the regions strength lies.
"By ensuring that any response to the Pacific is grounded by Pacific led, partner supported initiatives that will give us much stronger returns."
