The United States (U.S.) has announced $44 million in new programmes to help Pacific Island nations tackle a sharp increase in illicit drug trafficking following the first U.S.-Pacific Islands Conference of Police Ministers in Los Angeles.
Addressing journalists at a virtual press briefing on Tuesday, October 27th, 2026, from the Asia Pacific Media Hub, the Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, F. Cartwright Weiland said authorities across the Pacific had seized 17 tons of illicit drugs before May this year, more than three times the total recorded throughout 2025.
“That’s a huge and very frightening increase,” Weiland said.
He noted that nearly 68,000 Americans died of overdoses in the latest year, adding that the same criminal groups are fuelling problems previously unseen on the islands, including full psychiatric wards, children sniffing glue and boats carrying cocaine washing ashore.
The conference, co-chaired by U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Kevin Lunday and Palau Minister of Justice Jennifer Olegeriil, brought together police ministers and U.S. officials.
Participants observed drug detection operations at the Port of Long Beach, went to sea with the Coast Guard and visited facilities belonging to the FBI, DEA and Los Angeles Police Department.
Weiland said the $44 million package includes $7 million for a new regional crime-fighting centre in Palau to support maritime enforcement training, financial intelligence and cybercrime units. Overall U.S. investment in the Pacific through his bureau has risen from $6 million in 2021 to more than $60 million. The bureau opened its first office in Suva in 2024, and the office is expanding.
He also highlighted RIPTIDE, a $4 million initiative that marks the first effort to connect security assistance and intelligence sharing between the Western Hemisphere and the Pacific.
“These criminal networks want us to be divided. By coming together, we showed them that we want to make the Pacific the hardest place on Earth for criminals to do business,” Weiland said.
He noted that the Philippines participated in the conference and that the United States is providing maritime domain awareness technology to help countries with large exclusive economic zones, such as Fiji, monitor their waters.
Weiland added that although established cartel chapters have not yet been identified on the islands, distributors and contacts are already active, while some Ecuadorian groups appear capable of conducting long-range operations using semi-submersible vessels.
