Security experts have warned a $200m Chinese-built fisheries plant, proposed for a Papua New Guinean island on Australia’s border, could be exploited as a cover by transnational organised crime networks to smuggle drugs, weapons and people. The PNG island of Daru, where the fish processing plant is proposed to be built, is just 50km from Australia’s Saibai Island, in the Torres Strait. Dyhia Belhabib, the principal fisheries investigator at EcoTrust Canada and the founder of SpyGlass, which maps and publishes the criminal records of fishing vessels, said the use of small fishing vessels in drug trans-shipment has tripled over the past eight years to about 15% of the global retail value of illicit drugs. Belhabib said in a situation such as the Torres Strait, criminal syndicates would use fishing vessels to blend in. Photograph: Kevin RushbyCriminal organisations have previously sought to exploit the Torres Strait, and Daru Island itself.

Source: The Guardian February 10, 2021 18:56 UTC