Several senior officers within the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary are allegedly part of the illicit drugs and sex trafficking involving Papua New Guinean women and children.

MINISTER: POLICE OFFICERS PART OF SEX SYNDICATE

BY MIRIAM ZARRIGA - Post Courier - January 19, 2023

Several senior officers within the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary are allegedly part of the illicit drugs and sex trafficking involving Papua New Guinean women and children.

Minister for Internal Security Peter Tsiamalili Jr told Parliament that the officers are part of a syndicate that is abusing gaps within the system.

“We know that for far too long, our police have been compromised.

“However, there is a collective effort in closing those gaps taken by the government.

“In relation to the cases reported recently on a sex ring senior members of the police are allegedly part of the case, and due to its sensitivity, we will provide information there after, for now we will allow the Internal Affairs to carry out the exercise of investigations,” he said.

Mr Tsiamalili was responding to Rai Coast MP Kessy Sawang who asked a series of questions on the increasing movement of illicit drugs and alleged reports of sex trafficking with the sex traffickers exploiting women and children with most forced into labour.

He said: “The only way we can identify those that ‘are aliens that are taking advantage of our system’ is to ensure the NID is the genesis of development and security.

“We can then zero down and have visibility of citizens.

“This is right across our country that the syndicate is abusing the gaps and so within the police force there is an effort that we have put down that we will start collaborate a lot more with our bilateral partners and enhance the areas within the force that need the support.”

Outside Parliament, Police Commissioner David Manning said: “We are aware of a criminal syndicate that has members of the force collaborating with them.

“This syndicate has been operating in the country for some time and are involved in many illicit activities.

“We have clamped down on some of the members we have identified and we will continue to do so in the meantime working with other partner agencies to deal with the syndicate as a whole.

“Certain amendments to the Dangerous Drugs Act as well as Criminal Code Act will allow police solely to investigate, arrest and persecute these targets.

The penalties for meth and transnational crime need to be harsher, he added.

“We have also looked at the Police Act to criminalise certain disciplinary offences.

“This is to ensure we make unprofessional and unlawful actions of members answerable in a court of law.”