Yvette Nikolic in bid to get ‘drug boat’ Shenanigans back
A recently freed Yvette Nikolic is making a High Court bid for her yacht Shenanigans — on which up to $30 million of cocaine was discovered — to be returned to her.
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Exclusive: A recently freed Yvette Nikolic is making a High Court bid for her yacht Shenanigans — on which up to $30 million of cocaine was discovered — to be returned to her.
The catamaran, which was seized by Fiji customs in June last year and is currently on dry dock at Vuda Marina near Lautoka, is now at the centre of a civil case before the Suva High Court.
A week after being found not guilty of drug importation and possession charges, Yvette Nikolic is back in Melbourne celebrating with family and friends.
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Her former horse trainer husband, John Nikolic, remains charged with drug smuggling and locked up in Suva prison.
It is possible John Nikolic’s Suva High Court criminal trial will wind up at the end of this week after his legal team told Justice Daniel Goundar it did not plan to present evidence on his behalf.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
News Corp Australia has learned the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service (FRCS) has made an application for the forfeiture and sale of Shenanigans and all of its contents but Yvette is fighting to get the yacht back.
It is understood she plans to have someone sail Shenanigans to Australia for her if she is successful.
Locals at Vuda Marina told News Corp Australia today it was their understanding “the drug boat”, Shenanigans, was already on the market.
The yacht was not officially listed for sale on the marina’s boat shop noticeboard when News Corp Australia checked.
The catamaran, which was purchased in Yvette’s name for $A335,000 from a Florida boat broker in late 2017, was seized by the FRCS after its drug bust at Denarau Marina on June 22 last year.
The prosecution alleges 13 bars of cocaine, ecstasy tablets, fully-loaded weapons, ammunition and $US15,000 in $100 bills were found by authorities hidden under Shenanigans deck and in the wall of the communal lounge area.
MORE: John wouldn’t give Yvette last kiss
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The Nikolics had sailed the yacht from Florida, to Colombia, through Panama and across the Pacific before it was raided in Fiji and John allegedly attempted suicide with a deliberate overdose.
The Suva High Court has heard over the course of the Nikolics’ criminal trial that John said “a Colombian” had put something in a bag on the boat.
Ten of the 13 bars of high-purity cocaine were found stashed in a blue bag in the yacht’s lazarette locker.
Senior Fiji customs officer, Fenton Williams, has told the court a “distraught” John Nikolic told him during the raid he owed “some dangerous people a lot of money that he couldn’t possibly pay back and this was his only way out”.
John allegedly also took sole responsibility for the drugs and said he wanted to be the one to tell Yvette “what happened … what had transpired, of what he’d done”.
MORE: Aussie-bred dog found drugs on Nikolics’ yacht
MORE: Distraught Nikolic ‘could not see another way out’
MORE: Nikolic’s alleged cocaine stash revealed in court
MORE: Nikolic allegedly knew what Fiji cops were looking for
MORE: Overdose was Nikolic’s ‘parting gift’ to wife
In his opening address lead prosecutor Lee Burney said Mr Nikolic’s suicide attempt was the act of a guilty man but also of a loving husband who wanted to protect his wife.
“It is the prosecution case that it was Mr Nikolic’s parting gift to his wife to attempt to provide her with the life raft of a false defence,” he said.
Originally published as Yvette Nikolic in bid to get ‘drug boat’ Shenanigans back
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