During yesterday’s briefing at the Department of Public Safety office, police adviser to the Micronesia Transnational Crime Unit of the Australian Federal Police Michael Murray said everybody can help in making Micronesia a safer place to live in by assisting in the detection and reporting any of the transnational crimes in their specific areas.
Although statistics of actual apprehensions on illegal fishing vessels and individuals were unavailable as of yesterday, Murray said solving the problem will be made faster when the community forwards to them necessary information.
Aside from illegal fishing, the six other prevalent crimes in the four Pacific areas of CNMI, Palau, the FSM and the Marshall Islands are people smuggling, corruption, weapons trafficking, fraud, drugs and money laundering.
M-TCU, according to Murray, is one of the eight joint law enforcement units spread across the Pacific whose main role is criminal intelligence gathering and target development.
“M-TCU assists in the detection of transnational criminal networks and dismantle criminal activity in the Pacific regions with our partner police and parent law enforcement agencies,” Murray said.
He added that M-TCU has and continues to actively pursue the publics support for information so that the goal of making Micronesia a safer place can be reached.
“The Australian government through the Australian Federal Police International Portfolio are working together with law enforcement partners which includes the police, customs, maritime units, immigration, port authority, legislators or the Attorney General’s Office to fight transnational crime in the region in a unique and collaborative way,” Murray said.
He added that his role within M-TCU is to assist law enforcement partners to collect, assess and disseminate intelligence relating to transnational criminality in the area, and provide where necessary specific capacity development.
“All information we receive will be treated as confidential,” Murray said.
To support their public education campaign, Murray said they have placed streamers in strategic places and will be distributing flyers in public places so the community will know where to report when they detect any transnational crime.
DPS spokesman Eric F. David said that there are five police officers currently involved with the M-TCU, including PO1 Murphy H. Paul who recently came home from six months training in Pohnpei, and PO1 Melinda D. Villanueva who trained for a couple of weeks here, and officer James R. Rabauliman.
“The M-TCU can help the CNMI a lot, especially as the residents of this island are a mix of nationalities and we can forward any information quickly,” David said.
If you have any information on any of the transnational crimes in your region, contact the M-TCU crime unit at P.O. Box PS 86 Paliker Sokehs, Pohnpei, FM 96941 or call 691-320-5713, SMS 691-922-1431, fax 691-320-1156, 664-9035 on Saipan, or e-mail [email protected].
