Mei “Gigi” Lin, 41, was arrested in Brisbane after police intercepted the first of what they claim would have been a series of black flights into Australia in March last year. It contained over 71 kilograms (156.5 pounds) of methamphetamine. She is currently on bail awaiting trial and denies any involvement in the offences.
She is one of six people arrested and charged in Australia, including two pilots. Eight others were charged in PNG, including a police officer and a soldier.
Ms. Lin is alleged to have stored the drugs and organised their transport within PNG, as well as paying for fuel for the aircraft and the use of the runway in the town of Bulolo, where it took off.
She is “the prime suspect” in the case, according to Manu Pulei, the lead PNG police investigator.
‘Make it Rain’
The AFP allege she used encrypted communications devices to communicate with other members of the syndicate, and was known as “Make it Rain” or just “Rain.”
Court records show that the allegations against Ms. Lin centre on her role as owner and CEO of a company called KC 2, a wholesaler and retailer based in Lae. The methamphetamine was allegedly stored on the company’s premises before the flight. A KC 2 employee arrested last year on drug smuggling charges, Lin Hezhong, is her uncle.
However, that business is just one of nearly two dozen involving Ms. Lin in some capacity in PNG and Australia, according to corporate documents.
They show she was also a manager at a company owned by former PNG Deputy Prime Minister Moses Maladina, called Chatswood PNG. It is the subject of an investigation into the alleged abuse of Australian government funding meant for the care of refugees and asylum seekers under Australia’s “offshore processing” regime.
It is not alleged that Mr. Maladina or his company are connected to drug trafficking. In a written statement, Mr. Maladina denied any wrongdoing in the migration scheme and said Ms. Lin had only briefly worked for Chatswood PNG.
“Chatswood is not and has never been involved in any illegal [activity], and we strongly oppose the use of ... drugs in our society. Chatswood and its directors and staff are NOT in any way associated with the activities of Mei Lin,” Mr. Maladina said.
However, investigations by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Inside PNG have obtained documents that appear to show that Ms. Lin did in fact play a senior role in Chatswood PNG.
These include a February 2022 letter bearing the company’s seal and signed by Ms. Lin, in which she identified herself as the “property manager” of Chatswood PNG, and a corporate visa card in her name.
Namora Niugini, a business owned by the Lin family, is also alleged to have been involved in fraudulently charging the Australian government in concert with Chatswood PNG.
A third company, called PNG Humanitarian Program Ltd, was established by Mr. Maladina in October 2021 and subsequently transferred to Ms. Lin’s ownership five months later. It was then renamed ABC Enterprises.
Murky Past
Verifying much of Ms. Lin’s past is difficult, because she appears to have been untruthful on various documents.She was born in China’s southeastern Fujian province in 1982 and claims to have immigrated to PNG with her family as a teenager, where she attended two of the country’s most exclusive schools—at least that’s what she said on documents submitted to PNG authorities as part of her successful 2016 citizenship application.
One letter—full of grammatical errors—attested to her attendance at Port Moresby Grammar School. But school administrator David Olley told reporters it was a “fraudulent letter” and had been signed by someone who had never worked at the school.
She also said she had studied at the elite Port Moresby International School in 2003—when, according to the Chinese birth certificate she supplied, she would have been 20 years old. But the school’s secretary, Albina Melua, said she could find no record of Ms. Lin’s attendance.
“In 2003, there was no Lin here,” Ms. Melua said.
Claiming her parents in China had provided the funds to start her own business, Ms. Lin began in her adoptive hometown of Lae, establishing KC 2 there in 2013.
That company experienced a huge revenue growth, from just 6.4 million PNG kina (AU$2.57 million) in 2013, to over 121 million kina (AU$48.62 million) by 2022.
Investing some of her profits into property, she began to attract critical nationwide attention after media reports alleged that she had improperly obtained state-owned land and violently evicted tenants.
One of her land deals was ruled illegal, and Ms. Lin was questioned by a PNG parliamentary committee in 2021.
Over the last decade Ms. Lin established at least a dozen other PNG-based companies, along with close family members and partners, covering sectors including property, security, nightclubs, gambling, and finance.
Links to CCP figures
A year later, she co-founded Kwik Moni, which advertises itself as a lender for personal expenses including “school fees, bride price, funeral expenses… and any worthwhile purposes.”Other partners in Kwik Moni include two people who have held senior roles in the China and PNG Friendship Association, ostensibly aimed at promoting bilateral relations and the interests of overseas Chinese. Such organisations are under the control of the Chinese Communist Party under its “United Front” strategy to push Beijing’s interests abroad.
One of these men, Billy Huaan Lin, has served in several leadership roles in the Friendship Association and has also played an intermediary role in PNG’s security relationship with China, donning a PNG police uniform and travelling with PNG officers to China for training, according to Chinese media coverage.
Another partner in Kwik Moni, Irene Wan Xia Seeto, has been identified as the chapter head of the China-PNG association in the township of Rabaul.
Ms. Lin’s alleged involvement in the flight did not deter her Kwik Moni business partner, Ms. Seeto, from continuing their business relationship.
Corporate records from Australia show that Ms. Seeto and Ms. Lin opened a new company together in August 2023—after Ms. Lin’s arrest—called IG Developments Pty Ltd, which lists its place of business as what appears to be an empty lot in suburban Brisbane. It is unclear what the company does.
When required to offer sureties for bail, Ms. Lin put up property worth about $2.6 million, which included her share of her $3 million home in the Brisbane suburb of Rochedale.
The drug smuggling investigation is ongoing and authorities will release only “limited information” until it is complete, PNG’s police minister Peter Tsiamalili said.
