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US announces more than $44 million for Pacific policing, maritime security
October 27, 2026 _ VILIAME TAWANAKORO _ Maritime（https://islandsbusiness.com/tag/maritime/）, Pacific（https://islandsbusiness.com/tag/pacific/）, Policing（https://islandsbusiness.com/tag/policing/）, Security（https://islandsbusiness.com/tag/security/）, Trafficking（https://islandsbusiness.com/tag/trafficking/） _ News（https://islandsbusiness.com/category/news-break/）,
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108) steams in formation during a multiple large deck event. Image: U.S. Navy Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Nathan Laird
THE United States announced more than $USD44 million in new security programming for the Pacific at a police ministers’ conference in Los Angeles, including a maritime law enforcement centre in Palau, expanded patrol cooperation and new border-screening equipment for Tonga.
The funding targets what the US State Department described as a connected criminal network moving narcotics across the Pacific and laundering proceeds.
The announcement came at the inaugural US-Pacific Islands Conference of Police Ministers, held Oct. 21–22 and co-chaired by US Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Kevin Lunday and Palau Justice Minister Jennifer Olegeriil.
The conference followed the department’s Sept. 1 commitment at the Pacific Islands Forum in Palau to convene Pacific police ministers. Participants included officials from Pacific Island countries, Australia, New Zealand and France, as well as regional organisations and law enforcement representatives from other regions.
Across-Pacific trafficking picture
The department said precursor chemicals reach clandestine laboratories in Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and Southeast Asia, with finished drugs then moved across the Pacific by couriers, international mail, private aircraft and semi-submersible vessels.
It said money laundering supports the trade and that, since 2024, narcotics trafficked through the Pacific by Western Hemisphere cartels have surpassed the flow from Asia.
“Each link in this chain depends on the others,” the statement said, arguing that enforcement must begin where drugs and precursor chemicals enter legitimate trade.
The package spans maritime surveillance, police investigations, port security and financial-crime enforcement.
The U.S. statement framed the effort as protecting Pacific partners and the American homeland, saying, “When the Pacific Islands are secure, the American homeland is safer.”
Palau to host regional maritime centre.
The United States is investing $7 million in a regional maritime law enforcement training and coordination centre in Palau, which will serve as headquarters for the Aumoana Regional Law Enforcement Initiative.
The centre is expected to train Pacific personnel in vessel boarding, evidence handling and maritime awareness, and host U.S. and regional liaison officers providing intelligence support.
A separate maritime-awareness package of nearly $5.5 million is intended to give regional partners a shared view of waters used by traffickers and illegal fishing fleets. I
t includes more than $1.4 million in surveillance tools for the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency and Fiji’s maritime services, a secure communications system for the Samoa-hosted Pacific Transnational Crime Coordination Centre, and a boat ramp in Fiji.