Meth arrives in Australia through many routes, but it's destroying lives on Papua New Guinea's islands near the Torres Strait

Meth arrives in Australia through many routes, but it's destroying lives on Papua New Guinea's islands near the Torres StraitCruising along the shared maritime border between Australia and Papua New Guinea in the Torres Strait, police and customs officers get a call.

PNG has been caught up in some extraordinary headlines in recent years as traffickers attempt to bring illicit drugs into Australia.alleged "black flight" attempt where more than 70kg of methamphetamine was flown from an airstrip south of Lae to Queensland From this part of the world, you can see Australian islands including Saibai on the left and PNG's coastline on the right.It's a difficult beat to police. There are effectively six officers with two boats to patrol a large expanse of both ocean and remote villages.Six people have been arrested for the alleged importation attempt in November — three in the coastal village of Mabaduan, two in the former Western provincial capital of Daru and one person in Port Moresby.

You don't have to search far to find locals with stories about smuggling taking place on the island or the coastline.Less than a year ago, Alfred Adiba's adult son Colin boarded a dinghy with his uncle Peter and another man. Beche-de-mer is hugely popular as a delicacy and medicine in parts of South-East Asia, but with the rising cost of fuel and boat hire, locals are barely breaking even.

"They come with money too, so when they offer money, they go for it. Because at the end of the day, they know they will have something.""I think they're basically doing it for their own survival. They know it's wrong, but they're still doing it," he said.

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