_{By Charley Piringi}

Hyperchem Pharmacy (Solomon) Ltd has categorically denied any involvement or knowledge of Aiyaz Mohammed Musa Umarji’s alleged methamphetamine dealings. 

Umarji, who’s family owns 70% share in Hyperchem Solomons, was jailed for four years recently in New Zealand, over illegal importation of drugs.

Director of Hyperchem Solomon, Ken Woolet, said that their past receipt of Actified and Pseudoephedrine products for legitimate pharmaceutical use.

Speaking to In-Depth Solomons, Woolet disclosed that his knowledge of Umarji’s legal issues was limited to news reports. 

Woolet, an Australian, holds a 30 percent stake in Hyperchem Pharmacy (Solomon) Limited. The remaining 70 percent shares are held by Aiyaz’s wife, Zaheera Cassim. 

“We have received Actified and Pseudoephedrine products from Aiyaz in the past,” Woolent said. “However, we have not done so recently, given the global ban on these substances. Our procurements are solely for medical purposes,” he added.

Umarji’s legal troubles culminated in his surrender to New Zealand authorities in August this year after a period of self-imposed exile in India. 

He pleaded guilty to charges dating back several years and was subsequently sentenced to four years in prison for his involvement in the illegal importation of pseudoephedrine, a precursor chemical for methamphetamine, with an estimated value of 5-6 million New Zealand dollars.

An investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) unveiled the case of Aiyaz Mohammed Musa Umarji, the operator of a Pacific-wide network of pharmacy companies, who faced legal consequences in New Zealand for the unlawful importation of millions of dollars’ worth of pseudoephedrine, a key precursor chemical in methamphetamine production.

Umarji, a Fijian national, had long been under the scrutiny of law enforcement agencies in his home country. However, his evasion of justice was attributed to an alleged reluctance by the previous authoritarian government of Frank Bainimarama to address the pressing issue of methamphetamine and cocaine trafficking.

The breakthrough in Aiyaz’s case was achieved through the diligent work of New Zealand detective Peter Reynolds, who meticulously sifted through police records. Reynolds stumbled upon a significant lead from nearly two years prior.

In late 2017, an anonymous tipster had contacted an anti-crime hotline to report suspicious activities at the residence of businessman Firdos “Freddie” Dalal in suburban Auckland. Acting on a warrant, law enforcement officers discovered 726,190 New Zealand dollars in cash and 4,000 boxes of Actifed, a cold and flu medication containing pseudoephedrine.

This investigation, named “Operation Duet,” resulted in Dalal’s conviction and furnished Reynolds with the essential evidence to pursue Umarji. It was revealed that Dalal, who owned an Auckland-based freight forwarding company, was also listed as the director of Umarji’s New Zealand enterprise, Bio Pharma.

Reynolds meticulously pieced together the operation’s mechanics. Umarji employed his extensive Hyperchem network throughout the Pacific to order Actifed pills. These shipments were intended for delivery to his pharmacies in Fiji and the Solomon Islands, with transshipment through New Zealand. Dalal’s forwarding company was responsible for cargo handling in New Zealand.

While the shipments were held in a restricted customs area, Dalal simply exchanged them for other products, such as anti-fungal cream. These altered shipments were then sent to their island destinations, primarily Fiji and the Solomon Islands. The misappropriated pseudoephedrine was subsequently sold on New Zealand’s black market.

OCCRP report further confirmed, in just three shipments between January and October 2017, Umarji’s operation introduced an estimated 678,000 Actifed pills, containing approximately 40.7 kilograms of pseudoephedrine, as determined by the Auckland District Court.

The report by OCCRP also shed light on the alarming increase in drug trafficking through Fiji, which forms a crucial part of a thriving trans-Pacific trade. 

This illicit trade has been deemed one of the world’s most lucrative, with Australia and New Zealand serving as the primary markets for methamphetamine.

In Australia, the most recent data shows that drug seizures have more than quadrupled over the last decade, and Australians now consume 4.7 tons of cocaine and 8.8 tons of meth a year. 

In much smaller New Zealand, drug users strongly prefer meth to cocaine, consuming roughly 720 kilograms a year.

Consumers in both countries pay some of the highest prices on earth for cocaine and meth, much of it exported from the Americas. 

Lying in the vast blue expanse between the two points are the Pacific Islands.

Glyn Rowland, the New Zealand Police senior liaison officer for the Pacific, remarked on Fiji’s vulnerability due to its port facilities, infrastructure, and accessibility by watercraft or airplane. This has made Fiji a transit point en route to New Zealand and Australia, raising concerns about drug trafficking through the region.

Fiji has long been a target of international organized crime due to its strategic location in proximity to the multi-billion-dollar drug markets in Australia and New Zealand. Notably, in the early 2000s, an international police operation dismantled a large methamphetamine “super lab” in Fiji’s capital, Suva, operated by Chinese criminal organizations, equipped with precursor chemicals sufficient for producing a tonne of methamphetamine.

Hyperchem Pharmacy (Solomon) Ltd was established in 2015. They operated two branches in Honiara.

Recently, Hyperchem expanded its presence by opening a Pacific Branch in Vanuatu.

*The original reports was done by OCCRP and its partners.