Targeting crime in the Pacifi c region h e Pacifi c Transnational Crime of the Samoa TCU team, Sinha was found transnational crime in the Pacifi c region,” Network is an initiative of the AFP and walking along the main street of Apia. Commissioner Neru said. He was headed for the Australian High is enhancing policing in the region. “h is will not be easy, but in true Pacifi c Commission having just left the Samoa Early last September, Federal Agent Greg style, if we work collaboratively and remain Immigration Department where he had Whites mobile phone rang as he walked committed to the fi ght, I am sure we will tried to extend his local visa. Senior up the steps into the Pacifi c Transnational prevail.” Sergeant Viliamu arrested Sinha for Crime Coordination Centre in Apia, Samoa. immigration off ences and a few days later h e AFP has provided extensive training At the other end of the phone that morning he was deported to Fiji to face fraud and to its Pacifi c law enforcement partners in was Inspector Meleanie Taueli, the team immigration charges. investigations management, surveillance leader from the Tonga Transnational Crime and intelligence, along with the provision of h e international cooperation that enabled Unit (TCU). She had information that the senior AFP offi cers who have mentored the the arrest of Sinha was delivered via the most wanted man in the Pacifi c was about offi cers at the TCUs since the inception of Pacifi c Transnational Crime Network, an to arrive in Apia. the program. h rough its Law Enforcement AFP-initiated program which has helped 10 Cooperation Program, the AFP has provided h e man was Fijian national Salendra Sinha, Pacifi c Island nations to work together with a range of technical assistance by providing a man with many aliases who was wanted the AFP and the US Asia-Pacifi c counter- information technology infrastructure, by Fiji, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands for drug organisation, Joint Interagency Task secure communications and a range of a myriad of off ences. Force West, to investigate and prevent other technical assistance. Inspector Taueli said that Sinha was crime. h e formation of the PTCN has signifi cantly believed to be in Samoa after hiding under h e Pacifi c Transnational Crime Network reduced operational costs for the AFP. false identities in Tonga and, before that, in (PTCN) was formed in July 2002 in For example, Operation Logrunner, an Fiji. response to the emergence of signifi cant international operation that netted in Fiji transnational crime. h e AFP identifi ed an Sinha and an associate had been tracked 357 kilograms of heroin destined for opportunity to use the strong relationships to Samoa where they were expected to Australia in in October 2000, cost the AFP it had established throughout the Pacifi c catch connecting fl ights to Sydney and an estimated $2 million. Since the PTCN region to extend those partnerships into the Singapore. Despite the urgent international was formed, Pacifi c island police forces creation of a Pacifi c-owned transnational communications, it looked like Sinha have increased capacity to take carriage crime law enforcement entity. had successfully made the transfer to a of investigations such as this, therefore Polynesian Blue fl ight to Sydney. Federal Samoan Police Commissioner Papaliitele reducing the level of AFP resources Agent White immediately began a series of Lorenese Neru, Chair of the Pacifi c required. phone calls to AFP and Australian Customs Transnational Crime Coordination Centre In June 2004, the then largest personnel to meet the fl ight in Sydney. Board of Management, said in October methamphetamine laboratory in the Between calls, he received a welcome 2007 that collaboration and commitment southern hemisphere was discovered message from the Samoa TCU. Sinhas to the fi ght against transnational crime was and dismantled in Suva, Fiji. Capable luck had run out. He had been turned away the key to success. of producing up to 500kgs of at the Polynesian Blue check-in counter “Having assumed the Chair and attended methamphetamine per week, this laboratory because his false passport did not have an my fi rst meeting, I am cognisant of the posed enormous environmental and Australian transit visa. h e bad news was magnitude of the challenges that lie ahead physical dangers to local communities. h e that he had left the airport. of me, my Board, the PTCN and other law methamphetamine was potentially destined After a hastily arranged search by Senior enforcement agencies in the fi ght against for markets in Europe, the US, Australia and Sergeant Viliamu Viliamu and two members New Zealand.

Platypus Magazine | Edition 102, July 2009 3 But transnational crime in the Pacifi c is not h e TCUs collect, collate, analyse and just about illicit drugs. disseminate tactical law enforcement intelligence to identify, target and Notorious conman Peter Foster defrauded investigate transnational crime. All TCUs the Bank of the Federated States of are well-resourced and are small, discrete Micronesia of more than $US500,000 and entities. attempted to defraud landowners in Fiji to build a resort complex. h e TCUs use a database developed and implemented by the AFP for processing Foster was arrested in Vanuatu and served and managing information, and a secure h e Fiji TCU had primary carriage of the three weeks of a six-week sentence for communications platform to exchange methamphetamine laboratory investigation, illegally entering that country. He was then information and intelligence. including surveillance operations. h is deported to Australia, arrested in Brisbane proved that law enforcement agencies and convicted for money laundering. He All TCU staff receive training by the AFPs in smaller island countries have a potent, was sentenced to four and a half years gaol Learning and Development teams in law capable and interlinked capability to fi ght in December 2007, and on 4 May 2009 enforcement intelligence, investigations, transnational crime. was released on parole. surveillance and operations security. h e Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) Coordinator Asia-Pacifi c Desk John Tanti h e PTCN includes TCUs in Fiji (Suva and West is also supporting training for TCUs, said communication between all TCU Nadi), Samoa, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, and agencies such as the Pacifi c Islands countries was strong and eff ective. Vanuatu and in the Federated States of Forum secretariat conduct training Micronesia. ‘Mini-TCUs have also been “When confronted by criminals operating programs. established in Palau, Commonwealth of across borders, they have partners in the Northern Mariana Islands, the Marshall h e AFP provided the TCUs with vehicles, neighbouring island countries and regional Islands and Kiribati. offi ce equipment and furniture, and all partners to join with in advancing their own have similar surveillance equipment. law enforcement response to transnational h e Pacifi c Transnational Crime JIATF West refurbished the Micronesia crime syndicates,” Federal Agent Tanti said. Coordination Centre (PTCCC) located in TCU, and the AFP provided the training, a Apia, Samoa, is the core of the PTCN and A recent example of a successful operation vehicle and an advisor. manages, coordinates and enhances law involving a TCU occurred on 22 June 2009 enforcement intelligence provided by TCUs Further TCUs are planned, including one when four search warrants were executed in and regional law enforcement agencies. h e for the Solomon Islands and an expansion Pohnpei as part of a joint Micronesia State current Team Leader of the PTCCC is Osea of the Papua New Guinea TCU. All law Police and Micronesia TCU investigation Dakai, an offi cer from Fiji Customs. enforcement agencies in the region are relating to the cultivation and distribution of benefi ciaries of intelligence generated by cannabis. the PTCN. A total of 231 plants ranging from 40 French law enforcement agencies in the centimetres to three metres in height region have indicated a desire to actively were seized at four separate residences in participate within the PTCN and formal Pohnpei. h ree people were arrested. dialogue is continuing between the AFP h e seizure was worth up to $10,000 and law enforcement authorities in France – a very large income by Micronesian to implement this participation. standards. h e seized plants could have earned as much as $50,000 over one year. Cannabis plants seized in Pohnpei.

4 Platypus Magazine | Edition 102, July2009 Salendra Sinha – a case study in fraud In September 2008, the Samoa TCU arrested Salendra Sinha, a Fiji national, for immigration and fi nancial fraud activity in Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands.

For more than six months the Fiji TCU investigated Sinha, who had advertised an immigration scheme in 2007. He claimed that for a fee of $FJD555 ($A335) he could provide visas for work in Australian mining companies. From the money that was paid to him, he kept $FJD380,000 (more than $A229,000) and a signifi cant number of victims passports, and used those passports to commit further off ences. He was also involved in a scheme to intercept and fraudulently alter cheques written by the Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority to the value of $FJD200,000 (more than $A120,000).

In September 2008, the PTCCC established that Sinha had entered Tonga on a false passport and then travelled to Samoa where he was arrested attempting to fl ee to Singapore. He was deported to Fiji a few days later. Fiji TCU executed warrants on Sinhas residence and found evidence that directly linked him to the immigration and cheque schemes. A number of fraudulently obtained passports were also recovered.

Sinha had previously allegedly committed similar off ences, including defrauding the National Bank of Vanuatu of $US420,000 (more than $A533,600), and for passport off ences in the Solomon Islands. Sinha had a history of absconding from bail and when he attended the Lautoka Magistrates Court in Suva, Fiji for a hearing related to the above off ences he jumped over the railing of the defendants box and escaped through the front door of the court into a waiting car. He was recaptured by the Fiji TCU a few days later, along with his lawyer and others who had planned the escape.

Sinhas criminal activities aff ected the revenue capacity of several Pacifi c island countries as well as the lives of hundreds of low-income families. His criminal activity also created the potential for himself and others to commit immigration off ences against Australia with passport off ences by using fraudulent passports to enter Australia. h is case demonstrates the collaborative actions of the PTCN in eff ectively dismantling this operation, which had the potential to continue to defraud governments and people of enormous amounts of money.

Platypus Magazine | Edition 102, July 2009 5