Pacific

Guam battles a growing drug trafficking problem

20:09 pm on 20 June 2006

Guam police say they're fighting an increasingly tough battle against the trafficking of drugs, particularly methamphetamine.

Local police say Guam's location between Asia and the US mainland makes it a junction on the trafficking highway.

In Guam, the destruction of nearly 20 million US dollars worth of marijuana, crystal methamphetamine and other drugs has just been completed.

Operation Destruction of Narcotics, which began early last year, involved the controlled burning of seized narcotics, some of which dated back three decades.

The officer in charge of the evidence section, Sgt. Ron Taitano, says the fight against methamphetamine is a tough one...

"We're the middle of Asia and US mainland, and one of our neighbours is having a severe problem with crystal methamphetamine, which is Hawaii. Now we just recently started identifying and locating laborataries where people are making ice. Our problem is that because we are between these three locations, a considerable amount of these drugs come into our shores."

Sgt. Ron Taitano