Fiji linked in New Zealand drug trial
References to Fiji were heardrd duri duringng one of New Zealand’s biggest drug and moneyoney la laundering aundering trial against the Comancheros gang curre currentlyntly underway in a Highh Cour Courtrt in Auckland. In a four-week trial, the jury heard
Five people linked to the Comancheros gang, including its president Pasilika Naufahu, are on trial on 11 charges relating to drugs, organised crimes and money laundering. The five were arrested following a series of raids across Auckland in April 2019, which saw more than $3.7 million in assets seized along with luxury cars, motorbikes, luxury luggage and jewellery.
The Comancheros are widely known as an Australian biking gang. They were established in New Zealand after several senior members were deported there. NZ Police believe they are behind drug smuggling linked to a Mexican cartel.
Fiji links
On September 9, RNZ reported that the court heard a phone call between a man and another in Fiji, who can’t be identified.
In coded language, the Fiji-based man asked whether the NZ-based man wanted to “play in a bigger league” – the “world cup”, and this was “his chance”.
Nearly 500 pages of transcribed phone calls and text messages between various parties were produced as evidence.
This was after New Zealand Police were granted surveillance warrants to bug several phones in 2018. Another reference to Fiji was made during the trial on September 16 where a 51-year-old man, who has been convicted of other charges, gave evidence from custody via video link.
RNZ reported the man confirmed many of the code names used in intercepted phone calls included “apples”, “kumara”, “taro” and “cassava”, which referred to money and drugs, as well as decoding the nicknames used for people over the phone.
The man told the court he was hesitant when it came to his involvement in drugs. He said his brother had requested him to fly a suitcase full of drugs from Fiji to New Zealand or Australia.
Because he didn’t want to, he slashed the suitcase and put it in a river. The man said he was threatened and feared for the safety of his wife and daughter.
“My family’s life was on the line,” he said. “I had to do whatever he said.”
The man said he then became a New Zealand link for his brother and acted on his instructions, including meeting up with Naufahn, RNZ reported.
A day later Stuff reported that the man picked up a suitcase from a hotel containing drugs.
The man agreed, but said Naufahu also asked about drugs being stuck in Fiji.
The 51-year-old who gave evidence was observed, during the Police’s covert operation meeting with Naufahu on multiple occasions.
Called Operation Nova, the NZ National Organised Group, targeted the Comancheros and its affiliates. A number of arrests were made both in New Zealand and Fiji in February last year.
Whether the current trial in the High Court in Auckland has more connections to Fiji is yet to be established. But a number of incidences over the past years strongly suggest that a link exists.
Tallat Rahman
Now serving 16 years behind bars in New Zealand is 61-year-old Tallat Rahman who holds dual citizenship – Canadian and Fijian.
He had smuggled up to 5kg of methamphetamine for the Comancheros from Mexico to New Zealand.
Police investigations that began in late December 2018 under the first phase of Operation Nova, led to the discovery of the substance hidden inside kitchen appliances shipped from the United States of America. The combined 11kg seizure of methamphetamine in NZ had a street value of $5.5 million.
New Zealand Police said the drugs were distributed by “frontmen” for the Comancheros, with senior members of the gang benefiting the most.
Tallat travelled regularly to
Mexico and the United States, was arrested in February last year together with a 51-year-old New Zealand national, a 33-year-old Chinese national, and 19-year-old United States national for alleged drug and money laundering.
Tallat was not known to the NZ detectives, until his phone call from Mexico to one of the “frontmen”
of the Comancheros, whose phone conversations were bugged by detectives.
He flew into the Auckland International Airport on December 18, 2018 and checked into the Four Points by Sheraton on Queen St in the city. Three days later, his son, a 24-yearold Canadian national, from Fiji, checked into the same hotel and was seen meeting with a 19-year-old Mexican national.
The Fiji Police Force, with the assistance of two investigators from the NZ National Organised Crime Group, seized 39.5 kilograms of cocaine from the home of the 24-yearold in Caubati, Suva.
The seized cocaine has a street value of $30 million (NZ$19.5 million). Together, the seized substances in Fiji and New Zealand had a combined street value of more than $25 million.
The 24-year-old has been remanded in custody by Justice Daniel Goundar and will reappear in the High Court in Suva next Friday, October 9, 2020 for mention.
NZ media reported that two of the five people involved in the Comanchero trial, a media personality and an accountant accused of money laundering for the gang, were cleared of charges on Thursday. The next court date is set for January 2021 at the Auckland District Court.
Ashkan Farsani
In May 8, 2019, a New Zealand national, Ashkan Farsani Rikthegazader, was found dead with stab wounds outside the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva. He came to Fiji to establish what was described as a taro business, and was allegedly involved in a cocaine deal gone wrong in Lami. It was reported that Ashkan and two others only had $40,000 cash, which didn’t match the asking price.
Farsani’s associates then grabbed and ran with the bag of cocaine, but were pursued by the seller, who then allegedly stabbed Farsani. An investigative report by the major New Zealand media organisation Stuff said Farsani had links to another Auckland bike gang, the King Cobras.
The murder charge against Rusiate Raiwalui, who was believed to be the alleged seller of cocaine, has been dropped, after the Director of Public Prosecutions filed a nolle prosequi in court on July 17, 2020. Questions sent to Fijian Police on the status of the investigation and whether Raiwalui would be re-investigated remain unanswered.
Methamphetamine fuels activities
Jose Luis Sousa-Santos, a transnational crime expert said methamphetamine as a commodity fuels the activities of criminal organisations and drug cartels.
The Managing Director of Strategika Group Asia Pacific, an international risk and security analysis group said there were several reasons that narcotics were readily available in Fiji.
“Fiji has a larger economy,” Mr Sousa-Santos said.
“Fiji is not only a transport hub for the region, but also a trafficking hub for drugs from South East Asia and the Americas towards Australia and New Zealand so there is over-flow.
“There are also more sophisticated criminal organisations and entities in Fiji involved in domestic drug importation and distribution.”
High value
One kilogram of cocaine is roughly US$7000 (FJ$14,818) when it departs Mexico
When it arrives in Australia, it’s about US$250,000 (FJ$592,000) for a kilo, Mr Sousa-Santos.
It is widely known that Australia and New Zealand pay some of the highest prices of cocaine in the world.
It is believed that cocaine cartels organise shipment of yachts both coming in from Mexico, South America and Southeast Asia. Fiji and other Pacific islands are used as transit points.
In 2018, 31 bars of cocaine weighed 40.24 kilograms and valued at $28.2 million washed up in the Lau Group. The packaging was reported to have been similar to the 58 kilograms of cocaine that had a value of $27.39 million that washed up in Tonga in 2018.
Connected?
A local drug user based
West said organised crime cates were all connected.
“We are talking about multimillion dollars organised crimes,” he said.
Referencing the Comancheros bikie gang of Australia and New Zealand, he said the Comancheros had connections to “this part of the world”.
“[Comancheros] are an organised crime gang and they would be looking for any opportunities to make money in a country like this, so when it comes to drugs, transshipping and those kinds of things, they would get right on to it,” he said. “Not just drugs, money laundering buying real estate etc. I’m sure there would be links to those sorts of things going on.
“People will need to clean their money when they make it, so they take it outside of Australia and New Zealand.” in the syndi