GIFF JOHNSON
The multiple drug busts and discovery of “narco boats” washed into Pacific Islands demonstrates that the Pacific — and in particular the South Pacific — is a highway for drug distribution to Australia and New Zealand.
From the beginning of January through February 12, law enforcement officials have confiscated over 14 tons of cocaine captured on the high seas or on vessels in ports, while an additional nearly half a ton (1,000 pounds) was confiscated from a container in port, wrote New Zealand journalist Michael Field in a story carried on The Pacific Newsroom page on Facebook last weekend.
He said the estimated value of the multiple drug busts amounted to $2.4 billion.
Field discussed emerging patterns and put together a preliminary list of drug busts and narco boat seizures, including one at Arno Atoll in 2026.
“A cocaine logistics corridor is consolidating across the South Pacific,” Fields said. “Originating in Colombia and Peru, multi-ton shipments are increasingly being pushed toward Australia and New Zealand, bypassing heavily patrolled Caribbean and Central American routes.
“The emerging pattern suggests:
- Use of fishing vessels, cargo ships and semi-submersibles (known as “narco-subs”)
- Offshore transfers along eastern Pacific maritime lanes
- Offloading and repackaging points in loosely monitored island jurisdictions
- Fiji appears to have functioned as a staging or redistribution node in early 2026.”
He points to the development of many abandoned narco-submersibles being discovered around region.
“No regional authority maintains a public register of abandoned narco-subs or low-profile vessels found in Pacific waters,” he said. “Reporting indicates a growing number of discoveries.”
This includes narco subs found washed up in the Solomon Islands in 2024 and 2025, including:
- Ontong Java Atoll – Semi-submersible found empty, engines removed; later converted for local use.
- Ramos Island – Vessel discovered by member of parliament during fishing trip; empty, engines missing.
- Malaita Province – Drifted ashore; no cargo or crew.
“All three appear to have been abandoned after offload,” Fields said.
He noted that a semi-submersible drifted ashore at Arno Atoll earlier this month. Engines attached; no crew or cargo.
In 2025, the Marshall Islands saw so much cocaine wash ashore on multiple atolls and islands that one law enforcement official commented: “It’s raining cocaine.” After decades of occasional professionally wrapped packages of cocaine washing into islands in RMI, 2025 saw an explosion of these unexpected drugs. Since the Marshall Islands population is not a target for drug cartels in South and Central America, these discoveries of narco boats or packages of cocaine on beachs in the RMI possibly reflect drug runners dumping drug cargoes overboard when law enforcement such as the US Coast Guard searches vessels suspected otherwise drug running. And prevailing ocean currents do the rest.
In April last year, national police picked up over 45 pounds of cocaine on Wotho, brought it back to Ebeye, and incinerated it. Next, RMI Sea Patrol was dispatched to Jaluit where it confiscated over 20 pounds of similarly packaged cocaine. Later in the year, a small amount was collected from Jeh Ailinglaplap — law enforcement said they believe there is more that wasn’t turned over. And reports of cocaine on multiple other outer islands, including Arno, kept rolling in last year.
Fields pointed out that there hasn’t been a confirmed multi-ton seizure of cocaine in Tonga to date, though vessel sightings have been reported.
Fields included a 2026 “Running Sheet” of drug busts in the Pacific since January:
- January 15, Tavua, Fiji: Seizure of 2.64 tons of cocaine with an estimated value of $550 million. Police believe the drugs were delivered by semi-submersible vessel although no delivery craft was located.
- January 16, high seas, East of French Polynesia: Seizure of 4.87 tons of cocaine. Drug smuggling vessel: MV Raider, Togo-flagged cargo ship. Drugs destroyed at sea. Vessel and crew released. French authorities assessed the shipment was bound for Australia or New Zealand.
- February 2, high seas, East of French Polynesia: Seizure of 4.24 tons of cocaine. Operation: Joint action involving French forces and New Zealand Customs. Drug cargo destroyed. Unnamed vessel and crew released.
- February 5, Port of Papeete, French Polynesia: Seizure of 473.5kg (1,043 pounds) of cocaine. Method: Concealed inside a container bound for Australia. Origin: United States. Transited Caribbean before arrival in Papeete. Unlike the offshore seizures, this was a conventional container interception.
- February 12, high seas, East of French Polynesia: Seizure of 2.4 tons of cocaine. Vessel: Unnamed foreign-flagged ship. Drugs destroyed. Unnamed vessel and crew released after flag state declined to cede jurisdiction.
The January 16, February 2 and February 12 drug busts on the high seas east of French Polynesia confirmed the drug delivery corridor in the South Pacific as authorities confiscated multiple multi-ton maritime drug shipments in the same corridor within weeks of each other.
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