Oceania growth in synthetic drug markets

Australia and New Zealand are among the most profitable drug consumption markets in the world. An increase in demand over the past two decades, especially for methamphetamines and cocaine in the 2010s, led to the drug trade reaching record levels by 2020. Not even the disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic were able to slow this trend .

Today, wastewater reports from Australia and New Zealand identify methamphetamines as such selected dominant herb, with the market value increasing from year to year. And while consumption rates are not as high as they were before the pandemic, they have recovered from pandemic-related supply chain disruptions and remain concerning. up.

Located midway between the drug-producing countries of Asia and the Americas, and the consumer markets of Australia and New Zealand with their persistent levels of consumption, the Pacific islands have become transit points – the Pacific ‘drug highway’ , as referred to the region. . However, Pacific Island Countries (PICs) and territories are no longer just transit points – countries such as Tonga and Fiji have developed internal markets of consumption and production. Findings from 2023 Global index of organized crime show that synthetic drug markets in the PIC are now second only to the cannabis trade and in some cases have surpassed it.

Digging deeper into the Index data, half of the countries in Oceania experienced an increase in the severity of illicit synthetic drug markets between 2021 and 2023. These are New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia.

Elsewhere, Australia remained home to a ‘significant’ synthetic drug market and Palau had a ‘moderately influential’ market. Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Vanuatu and Tuvalu showed ‘virtually non-existent’ markets. The Solomon Islands also fall into the lowest category in terms of severity. However, unprecedented seizures in late 2023 revealed the emergence of a local market for methamphetamine and ketamine, suggesting that these narcotics have now also reached the Melanesian country.

The level of resilience against organized crime varies considerably across the continent. The main divide in terms of resilience measures is between Australia and New Zealand, which have very effective resilience mechanisms and tools on the one hand, and the PIC on the other. In the islands, resilience levels are, at best, moderately effective, albeit with country-specific variations. This suggests that there is a risk that local policy frameworks, law enforcement, public health systems and civil society organizations in general are not well prepared to cope with the apparent growth in domestic synthetic markets, including trade and local consumption.

A new trade

The bullish trend in the synthetic markets shows no sign of abating. In the Solomon Islands, an investigation launched in late 2023 found that logging camps were being used as conduits for Methamphetamine trade. Chinese entrepreneurs were believed to be importing the drug to sell in small quantities to local Chinese businessmen, landowners, loggers and nightclubs in the capital, Honiara, suggesting the emergence of an internal consumption market that had not existed before. These substances are so new to the Solomon Islands that they are not even on the list of ‘dangerous drugs’ banned in the country.

In January 2024Fiji reported what was perhaps the largest ever drug seizure, when authorities seized 3.5 tons of methamphetamine. Investigators believed the drugs were being shipped to Australia, allegedly with the help of officials and members of a pharmaceutical company.

Papua New Guinea has also become an important hub in the methamphetamine supply chain. Earlier this year, a politically connected Chinese businesswoman who had built a large business empire in the country was tasked with facilitating a black flight who landed in Australia with over 70 kg of methamphetamine. The Brisbane-based woman, who denied all charges, was admitted conditional release pending trial.

This emerging pattern of flaws in the region is shaped by foreign actors of organized crime who are increasingly penetrating the Pacific islands. The evidence suggests that it mostly is trade in synthetic drugs, cocaine and heroin that is attracting organized criminals in the Pacific. Despite the involvement of some Pacific Islanders, those who control the supply chain are Asian syndicates, Central and South American cartels, outlaw motorcycle gangs and opportunistic juvenile criminals from Europe and the Middle East.

Chinese organized crime groups and Mexican cartels are key to the synthetic drug trade. By the 1990s, methamphetamines produced in southern China were commonly trafficked to Australia. Subsequently, a 2015 anti-narcotics agreement between Canberra and Beijing was able to put a damper on this trade. However, Chinese predecessors (chemicals used in drug production) trafficked from Myanmar have since been used to produce methamphetamines, which are exported by the trio to Australia and New Zealand.

China is also the main supplier of precursors for Mexican cartels. Latin American cartels, particularly from Mexico, dominate the cocaine supply chain in Australia and New Zealand. However, the same cartels have also developed relations with Asian unions and chemical companies based in China that sells the precursors used to make fentanyl. Criminal networks appear to be effectively and efficiently linking global supply and demand.

Emerging trends observed in Oceania point to the urgency of addressing the synthetic drug trade. This requires law enforcement and public health efforts. It also means gaining a better understanding of these markets in the PIC, where information and data are sparse (in contrast to Australia and New Zealand).

This knowledge gap is to some extent related to the lack of capacity of local authorities to collect data, which is only partially addressed through reliance on regional organizations. Furthermore, unlike neighboring Southeast Asia, for example, most PICs have not established local markets for synthetic drugs (and therefore have not been a priority for data collection), and local authorities are still adapting with new trends. Developing a better understanding of the dynamics of new emerging markets – which are catching some Pacific authorities by surprise – with the help of longitudinal analytical tools such as the Global Organized Crime Index seems critical to more effectively combat these crimes.

This analysis is part ofGI-TOC’s series of articles delving into the results of the Global Organized Crime Index. The series explores the findings of the Index and their effects on policy-making, measures against organized crime and analysis from a thematic or regional perspective.