9/10/06; www.postcourier.com.pg/
Children of some of Bougainville’s well respected citizens are the ones found involved in the illegal trafficking of marijuana. This revelation comes after another arrest of a young boy, the son of the captain of provincial vessel MV Sankamap who police say has links with the student, policeman and the ship captain who were arrested last Wednesday and Thursday.
He is alleged to be working within the network, which involves some policemen, students and a number of young men from villages. Bougainville police say the arrests bring to the fore the very strong network drug traffickers have with crews of passenger vessels frequenting Bougainville weekly.
Senior officer of the Bougainville Police Service Sergeant Oscar Tugen said yesterday these children thought it would be easy to evade punishment. Sgt Tugen, who has led a number of drug raids in the region said he was appalled at finding those involved in the illegal trade were children whose parents had high standing in the community. “The parents of these children should come down hard on their them,†he said.
“They have to know what their children are doing in the day and in the night.†Sgt Tugen said even though police were working very hard in checking ships docking at the Buka wharf, some crewmen are not to co-operating with the police and help drug traffickers.
Just last week a student from Hutjena Secondary School was arrested for drug peddling prompting, acting principal James Torawa to threaten all future offenders with expulsion.