One of the powers vested upon customs officers under section 67 of the Customs Act is for the officers to board and search any ship or aircraft and open cupboards, lockers, room or other place on board to enforce section 29 (2) (a) of the act which provides for prohibition on importation of prohibited goods.
It is upon this provisions that customs assisted the Vanuatu Police, the Australian Customs and AFP to search the boat “SCOPE” formerly known as “RAJ” and removed 689 packages of cocaine in an operation conducted on the 20th and 21st of August 2013. This is said to be the biggest in the Oceania region.
The method of concealment proved to be one the hardest and customs officers had to dig through distingue layers of materials enduring dirt, longer stay and breathing dreadful smell inside the yacht.
These experiences could not have been possible without trainings offered by the Australian Customs to Vanuatu Customs Officials on how to search yachts. The trainings was offered sometimes in June 2013.
This in itself is another milestone achievement for Vanuatu but also shows that because of our geographical locations, we could be vulnerable to drug trafficking and we should be more careful.
