Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Technology is enabling drug networks to adapt and refine tactics to evade detection in the Pacific, including Samoa, resulting in a trafficking system that is distributed and resilient.

Associate Professor and head of the Pacific Regional Security Hub, Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Canterbury, Jose Sousa-Santos said the repeated discovery of “narco-subs” in Pacific waters is an example of this evolution.

This year alone, massive amounts of narcotics, including cocaine and methamphetamine, were nabbed in the Pacific. In Samoa, the amount of meth being found has kept increasing, and every drug raid has led to arrests.

Sousa-Santos said that in the Pacific, limited radar coverage beyond coastal areas, constrained maritime patrol capacity, and vast exclusive economic zones create conditions in which these vessels can operate with relative freedom.

“These conditions enable rendezvous operations at sea, staggered transfers (known as drip-feeding), and distributed delivery models. This results in a system designed to exploit the absence of persistent surveillance, rapid response capability, and integrated maritime awareness,” Sousa-Santos said.

“The innovation of criminal networks has gone further. Autonomous trafficking systems – uncrewed surface and sub-surface vessels, often described as “narco-drones” – are being used in other regions, and the Pacific is unlikely to remain insulated from this trend.

“Narco-drones reduce legal exposure and complicate questions of attribution, particularly when vessels traverse multiple jurisdictions. Even when intercepted, the absence of a human operator introduces ambiguity into both investigation and prosecution.”

For Pacific states, narco-drones present a dual challenge. The detection and analysis of such systems requires technical capabilities that are often limited or externally dependent. Existing legal frameworks are not equipped to address autonomous conveyances operating across maritime boundaries. As these drone technologies become cheaper, they will be more accessible.

Innovation at sea is increasingly complemented by developments in other domains. Aerial drones, while limited in payload, are being used to support trafficking operations through surveillance, coordination, and short-range delivery. These capabilities are particularly relevant in the Pacific. This allows traffickers to maintain distance from shore, reducing exposure while enabling precise transfers between vessels and collaborators on land. The significance lies less in the scale of these operations than in what they represent: the emergence of a multi-domain trafficking architecture in which maritime, aerial, and digital systems are integrated into a cohesive operational model.

“As technologies evolve and tactics adapt, the Pacific is being increasingly integrated within the global narcotics economy rather than as a peripheral transit zone. Drug trafficking in the Pacific is becoming more sophisticated, technologically enabled, and structurally embedded,” said Sousa-Santos.

Responding to this evolution demands a recalibration of strategy that integrates maritime domain awareness, legal reform, technological capability, and regional cooperation.

“The risk is that the gap between innovation and response continues to widen, enabling trafficking networks to consolidate their position across the Pacific. This is a challenge the region can only counter through enhanced intelligence sharing, localised and hybrid initiatives which close the gap between community watch and national law enforcement, and the technological resources and capabilities of partners such as Australia and New Zealand,” he said.