‘We are at the mercy of gangs’: Customs boss reveals
Criminal gangs are infiltrating Fiji’s border agencies, forcing the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service to tighten internal security and work closely with police and international partners to root out corruption.
Thursday 23 October 2025 | 03:00
Fiji Revenue and Customs Services chief executive officer Udit Singh.
Photo: Supplied
Criminal gangs are infiltrating Fiji’s border security agencies, forcing the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service (FRCS) to intensify internal safeguards, Parliament heard today.
FRCS chief executive officer (CEO) Udit Singh highlighted this during a Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence hearing on the organisation’s 2022-2023 Annual Report.
“We are at the mercy of gangs at the moment,” Mr Singh told the committee.
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“A lot of our organisations are being infiltrated, and we are working very closely with the enforcement heads to try and counter this issue.”
The revelation follows an incident where a senior FRCS customs officer was charged with importing nearly four kilograms of methamphetamine, which occurred shortly after the committee’s last visit to the organisation.
Mr Singh described the charged officer as “a person of high standing and a very experienced member of our staff,” adding the matter remains before the courts.
Committee vice chairperson Rinesh Sharma questioned what measures FRCS had implemented to prevent staff involvement in drug trafficking.
Mr Singh said the service was working closely with the Fiji Police Force on integrity issues, and rotating staff regularly.
“We are continuously ensuring that there's single people not working alone on cases and that we have got a distribution of information to confidential sources to ensure that some of these people are not infiltrated,” he said.
The CEO revealed FRCS was developing systems with development partners, including Australian Border Force, to remotely disable computers and retrieve information from staff devices when necessary.
FRCS is also working to monitor staff communications through official channels to trace any suspicious activity, even after officers leave the organisation.
The committee heard this security threats extend beyond customs to multiple enforcement agencies dealing with increasingly sophisticated cross-border financial crimes and narcotics trafficking.
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