Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • The Guardian

    The new drug highway: Pacific islands at centre of cocaine trafficking boom

    Explosion in number of boats carrying cocaine and meth from Latin America to Australia is causing havoc for islands on the way • Cocaine used as washing powder: police struggle with Pacific drug influx
    by Kate Lyons in Nadi, Fiji Jun 23, 2019 5 minutes

    It is the drug route you’ve never heard of: a multibillion dollar operation involving cocaine and methamphetamines being packed into the hulls of sailing boats in the US and Latin America and transported to Australia via South Pacific islands more often thought of as holiday destinations than narcotics hubs.

    In the past five years there has been an explosion in the number of boats, sometimes carrying more than a tonne of cocaine, making the journey across the Pacific Ocean to feed Australia’s growing and very lucrative drug habit.

    A yacht sailing in Fiji waters.
    A yacht sailing in Fiji waters. Photograph: Rob Rickman/The Guardian

    Caught in the middle are countries such as Fiji, which the Guardian visited as part of a series investigating the Pacific drug highway. Other countries affected include Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and New Caledonia, whose waters and

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from The Guardian

    The Guardian3 min readWorld
    Historians Come Together To Wrest Ukraine’s Past Out Of Russia’s Shadow
    The opening salvo in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year was not a rocket or a missile. Rather, it was an essay. Vladimir Putin’s On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians, published in summer 2021, ranged over 1,00
    The Guardian4 min read
    ‘Almost Like Election Night’: Behind The Scenes Of Spotify Wrapped
    There’s a flurry of activities inside Spotify’s New York City’s offices in the Financial District. “It’s almost like election night,” Louisa Ferguson, Spotify’s global head of marketing experience says, referring to a bustling newsroom. At the same t
    The Guardian4 min read
    Whether In Song Or In Silence, Shane MacGowan Exuded The Very Essence Of Life
    Shane MacGowan and I sat in near silence for two hours last year. We were at his home, just outside Dublin. I’d been warned by his wife, the writer Victoria Mary Clarke, that he was depressed and anxious, not really in the mood to talk. But nothing c

    Related Books & Audiobooks