Police cracking down on amphetamine dealers, marijuana farmers and dealers

Police Commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho says the Fiji Police Force knows that there is a big local market for amphetamine, and they are cracking down on the dealers of the hard drug.

Qiliho says people can be defensive and say that it is for the tourism market however he knows that there is a big local market.

He says addiction to the hard drug will seriously affect our country and economy.

Qiliho says with the increase in drug offences by 35 percent in the first six months of this year, they are working hard to track down the amphetamine dealers and the marijuana farmers and dealers.

Qiliho calls on people to come forward with any information that will assist in the arrest of the drug lords.

Meanwhile Qiliho says they continue to work hard in trying to reduce the number of robbery cases.

He says they managed to significantly reduce the increasing number of robberies in Namadi Heights through some coordinated plans and efforts.

He says they have also foiled a number of big robberies but they don’t release the information because it will cause unnecessary panic.

Qiliho stresses that 20 Police posts have not been closed in the country as claimed by some people.

He says only the Suva Point Police Post has been closed and the fact is that they are planning to open about 20 more Police posts.

He has also highlighted the difficulty they are facing in Koronivia as the landowner did not want to give his land on which the Police post was situated.

Qiliho has also revealed that some members of the RFMF will be joining the Special Response Unit as Special Constables as they are undergoing Hapkido training.

He says this will also assist in Police work as there have been a number of snatching cases in Suva.

Qiliho says there are some who are discrediting the work of the Police Force however they will continue to forge ahead to reduce the crime rate in Fiji.

He says there are also early discussions with the service providers in regards to the utilisation of the fibre optic cable to get the bandwidth so that they can install better quality CCTV cameras that can be linked to the main command centre and to the command centres of the divisional police stations.

He also says they have more vehicles allocated in the new budget and Police will also get 150 motorcycles.