Cocaine detections in Australian wastewater have risen by 98 percent over the past year, a UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) adviser told Pacific journalists in Savusavu, as she urged governments across the region to stop measuring success by drug seizures and start seizing the money instead. UNODC Pacific Regional Anti-Corruption Adviser Marie Pegie Cauchois made the call on Monday 22 September 2026 at the Pre-Pacific Media Summit workshop on Climate Change and Corruption, held for Pacific journalists ahead of the 8th Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) Summit, PACNEWS reported.
Key facts
- Cauchois said Pacific governments need stronger proceeds-of-crime laws, better information on who really owns companies, and cross-border sharing of financial intelligence.
- She cited Australian wastewater testing showing cocaine detections had risen by 98 percent over the previous year.
- She said the volume of drugs moving through the Pacific is unknown — including to New Zealand and Australia.
- Cooperation, she said, must extend beyond the region to Colombia, Mexico and Southeast Asia.
- She asked who the “real owners” are behind companies registered in the Pacific and in Australia.
- The account of the remarks comes from a single source: the PACNEWS bulletin of 22 September 2026.
Follow the money, not just the cargo
Cauchois told PACNEWS that governments must focus on the profits generated by criminal networks rather than seizures alone. She said the scale of trafficking through the region was difficult to determine, but that the size of some seizures and broader regional trends pointed to a growing challenge.
The absence of reliable numbers, she said, extends to Fiji’s two largest neighbours: neither New Zealand nor Australia knows how much passes through the region. It is an unusually blunt statement from a UN agency about the two states with the deepest maritime surveillance and law-enforcement presence in the Pacific, and it is the premise on which the rest of her argument rests — that if the cargo cannot be counted, the proceeds are the more tractable target.
What the 98 percent figure does and does not show
As an indication of scale, Cauchois pointed to wastewater testing in Australia, where she said cocaine detections had increased by 98 percent over the previous year.
Background, compiled by Fiji News: wastewater analysis works by measuring drug residues in sewage from a defined catchment and estimating consumption from them. It is a proxy for use within the catchment sampled — in this case in Australia — rather than a direct count of what moves through Pacific ports and airports. Cauchois presented the figure as an indicator of a growing challenge, not as a Pacific transit volume, and the bulletin did not report a comparable dataset for any Pacific island state.
Seizure powers and proceeds-of-crime laws
Cauchois said Pacific states should use proceeds-of-crime legislation to seize assets linked to criminal activity. That, she said, means strengthening the capacity to confiscate criminal proceeds and consolidating legislation across the region.
She did not name specific countries or statutes in the remarks reported by PACNEWS, and the bulletin did not record which jurisdictions she considers to have gaps.
Who really owns the companies
She also pressed the question of who stands behind the corporate structures criminal networks use, asking, in remarks reported by PACNEWS, “Who are the real owners behind the companies that are set up in the region, but also in Australia?” Access to beneficial ownership information, she said, is critical to answering it.
The inclusion of Australia in that question places the transparency problem not only in small island registries but in the largest economy on the route — the same jurisdiction whose wastewater data she had just cited.
Sharing intelligence across agencies and borders
Cauchois called for closer cooperation between transnational crime units, customs authorities and other agencies so that intelligence is shared and used to identify where criminal proceeds are being channelled.
Pacific countries cannot tackle organised crime and its financial networks alone, she said, and cooperation must extend beyond the region to Colombia, Mexico and Southeast Asia — naming, in effect, both ends of the supply chain — to reduce the Pacific’s attractiveness to criminal groups.
The Fiji stakes
The following section is Fiji News analysis and public-record context. It is not part of what was said at the workshop, and the judgements in it are the publication’s own.
Neither Cauchois nor the PACNEWS bulletin put a figure on what organised crime or illicit financial flows cost Fiji’s economy, and no such estimate was presented at the workshop.
What can be stated from the public record is institutional rather than statistical. Fiji operates a Financial Intelligence Unit established under its financial transactions reporting law, and Fiji is a member of the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering, the FATF-style regional body that assesses members against the international standards on proceeds of crime and beneficial ownership that Cauchois was describing. Those are the mechanisms through which her three levers would have to be delivered in Fiji. Fiji News was not able to obtain current FIU reporting volumes or a Fiji-specific drug seizure total for this report; where those figures are published, they belong in any assessment of whether the region’s enforcement is keeping pace.
In Fiji News’s assessment, the exposure for Fiji is less about the cargo than about the country’s standing in the financial system its economy runs on. Fiji’s external earnings arrive largely as tourism receipts, remittances and foreign-currency trade, all of which clear through correspondent banking relationships with larger institutions abroad. That is the channel through which a poor anti-money-laundering reputation or an international listing translates into an economic cost — a judgement Fiji News offers as analysis, not as a finding by any named institution. Fiji News has separately reported on Fiji’s long-running struggle with the EU tax blacklist, a listing driven by the same transparency and cooperation standards Cauchois raised in Savusavu.
Separately from Cauchois’s remarks, which did not address any domestic case, Fiji News has reported on the fisheries corruption trial now before the courts, where the allegations remain untested and no findings have been made.
What remains unclear
This report rests on a single source, the PACNEWS bulletin of 22 September 2026. The bulletin did not report Cauchois giving a timeline, a budget or a named regional instrument for the legislative consolidation she urged, nor did it record which Pacific governments have committed to beneficial ownership registers or to the intelligence-sharing arrangements she described. It carried no response from Fijian, Australian or New Zealand authorities to her assessment that the volume of drugs transiting the region is unknown. Fiji News has not independently verified the Australian wastewater figure, and has not obtained comment from UNODC, the Fiji Police Force or the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service. Any response will be added to this report.
The setting
The workshop was held in Savusavu immediately ahead of the 8th PINA Summit, the regional gathering of Pacific media organisations, with an agenda pairing climate change and corruption — two subjects that converge on the question of who controls large inflows of public and donor money. PINA president Kalafi Moala, quoted in the same bulletin, said Fiji’s Prime Minister had accepted an invitation to open the conference.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did the Australian wastewater data cited by UNODC show?
UNODC Pacific Regional Anti-Corruption Adviser Marie Pegie Cauchois told the Savusavu workshop that wastewater testing in Australia showed cocaine detections had risen by 98 percent over the previous year, according to PACNEWS. She offered the figure as an indication of the scale of the challenge facing the region, not as a measure of Pacific transit volumes. Fiji News has not independently verified the figure.
Does anyone know how much illicit drug cargo moves through the Pacific?
No. Cauchois told PACNEWS the figures simply do not exist, saying neither New Zealand nor Australia knows the volume passing through the region. She said the size of some seizures and wider regional trends are what indicate the scale of the problem.
What is beneficial ownership information, and why does UNODC want access to it?
Beneficial ownership information identifies the real people who ultimately control or profit from a company, as opposed to the nominee directors or shell entities listed on a registry. Cauchois asked, in remarks reported by PACNEWS, "Who are the real owners behind the companies that are set up in the region, but also in Australia?" and said access to that information is critical to tracing where criminal proceeds end up.
Which countries outside the Pacific does UNODC say need to be part of the response?
Cauchois named Colombia, Mexico and countries in Southeast Asia, according to PACNEWS. She said Pacific countries cannot tackle organised crime and its financial networks alone, and that work with groups in those places is needed to reduce the attractiveness of the Pacific region for organised crime.
Where and when did Cauchois make these remarks, and who reported them?
She spoke in Savusavu, Fiji, on Monday 22 September 2026, at the Pre-Pacific Media Summit workshop on Climate Change and Corruption, an event for Pacific journalists held ahead of the 8th Pacific Islands News Association Summit. PACNEWS reported her remarks in its bulletin the same day, and that bulletin is the sole source for the account of what she said.
