CONMAN Peter
Foster is in custody in Port Vila after being arrested by
He has not been
charged with any offences but is expected to face a count of illegally entering
the country.
Authorities in
four countries had been searching for the 44-year-old since he disappeared from
military custody in
A Pacific-wide
alert was issued for him on Thursday after the
Arrested with
Foster were two Australian expatriates who were with him at the time. The
couple, long-time residents of
Foster had
consistently maintained that he was still in
He was awaiting
trial on three charges relating to allegedly having used a forged Queensland
Police Service criminal history to obtain a
On Thursday,
Australian police revealed that acting on a written request from the police
commissioner of the Federated States of Micronesia, they were investigating
Foster over allegedly defrauding a bank of $US580,000 ($F971,384) in a land
title scam.
It is believed he
is likely to be extradited to
Two Australian
lawyers have now been charged with immigration and firearms offences and their
ex-Australian Navy minesweeper has been seized on suspicion they smuggled
Foster out of
The two, and an
Australian man and woman, were arrested on Tuesday after arriving in Port Vila
in their converted dive and salvage boat, the Retriever 1, preparing to look
for sunken wrecks in Vanuatu waters. It is likely they will now face additional
charges related to smuggling Foster into the country.
