Police Commissioner Brigadier-General Sitiveni Qiliho is on a mission to clear items, including proceeds of crime worth nearly $1 million, from storage exhibits around the country.

Not only does the storage contain cash, it also has confiscated hard drugs and marijuana, Mr Qiliho revealed.

A lot of the items, he said, had been around well before he became commissioner in 2016.

“There are exhibits that have sat there for so long and in some visits, I’ve seen that the packaging has been torn and ripped and I’ve been told that rats are also eating dried marijuana,” the commissioner said.

“My worry is whether it’s the four-legged rats or if there are some two-legged rats around.

“We don’t want these items to be around so my Police officers don’t get enticed into doing illegal things with it.”

He said the Police were already liaising with the courts to make a decision about what they could do with the money.

“Over the years, officers have attempted and some have even stolen that money,” Mr Qiliho added.

“For the cases that have been dealt with, the court should have made a decision on where the money should go.

“If it’s the proceeds of crime, then it has to go to the relevant agency that deals with money about proceeds of crime. So we have to go back to the Court.”

Police are also considering to rent a vault at a local bank to store the confiscated cash should the process of getting a decision takes time.

Other items in storage include rusted car engines, television sets and other electronic gadgets, he said.

Edited by Mohammed Zulfikar

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