Cocaine found ditched in Fiji sea and on remote islands in weeks after Shenanigans raid
The High Court trial of accused Aussie drug smugglers John and Yvette Nikolic was adjourned this morning because a defence lawyer contracted conjunctivitis, otherwise known as pinkeye.
The High Court trial of accused Aussie drug smugglers John and Yvette Nikolic was adjourned this morning because a defence lawyer contracted conjunctivitis, otherwise known as pinkeye.
The court heard there had been an outbreak of the highly contagious virus in the west of Fiji, where John Nikolic’s lawyer Wasu Pillay is based.
Mr Pillay’s colleague and Yvette Nikolic’s lawyer, Ronald Gordon, presented a medical certificate to the court on Mr Pillay’s behalf.
John Nikolic was seen squirting drops in his eyes in court late last week but it is not known if he too has caught pinkeye, which causes itchy, irritated and painful eyes and the discharge of pus, which typically crusts on eyelids and lashes.
Yvette Nikolic has previously caught chicken pox while in jail in Lautoka, in Fiji’s west.
The High Court trial will resume next Monday afternoon, as Justice Daniel Goundar has a conference he must attend in the second half of this week.
Before adjourning the trial Justice Goundar told John Nikolic he could no longer carry a bag into the dock of the Suva High Court.
To date, the Nikolics have been allowed to sit together in court before their case is called, embrace each other and family members in the courtroom, and chat to family members casually in the lobby outside the courtroom.
On many occasions John Nikolic has not been handcuffed and Yvette has never worn cuffs.
On one occasion John Nikolic’s brother, jockey Danny Nikolic, handed John and Yvette local newspapers which contained reports about the trial, to read in the dock.
Both Yvette and John have pleaded not guilty to charges of drug smuggling, drug possession and weapons offences after a raid by Fiji authorities on their boat, Shenanigans, on June 22 last year.
Nikolic arrest ‘may have spooked smugglers’
Spooked drug smugglers may have dumped bricks of cocaine into the Fiji sea and hidden them on remote islands to avoid being caught with their stashes, after John and Yvette Nikolic’s’ yacht Shenanigans was nabbed at Denarau Marina on June 22 last year News Corp has been told.
In late July 2018, a month after the Shenanigans raid, more than 12 kilograms of cocaine was found on a remote Fijian island accessible only by boat.
Earlier that month 40kg of cocaine was discovered on the same island.
And in September 2018, Australian authorities joined forces with Fiji police, its navy and its customs authority to investigate scores of brown parcels of cocaine washing up on the shores of Fiji’s outer islands.
About 100 parcels were found on beaches, many by farmers and some even by children.
Fiji police commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho said at the time a joint investigation was underway to determine the source of the cocaine parcels and of drug storage equipment which the Fiji Navy had found.
The brown packages featured a label with a picture of a buffalo.
The Fiji Revenue and Customs Service (FRCS) is now employing people power in its bid to stem drug smuggling through the Pacific.
It recently called on Fijians to be the authority’s “eyes and ears” on remote islands, watching out for, and reporting, any suspicious boating activity as part of a new Coast Watch initiative.
Commissioner Qiliho said the cocaine packages had been “dumped out there at sea, destined for some other place”, but it was not known how long the drug packages had been in the water.
The Nikolics will on Monday appear in the Suva High Court for the sixth day of their trial, charged with drug importation, possession and weapons offences.
It is alleged 13 bars of cocaine, ecstasy tablets, two unlicensed guns, ammunition and US$15,000 in $100 bills were found on board Shenanigans when it was raided.
The Nikolics — who have pleaded not guilty to all charges — face possible life sentences in Fiji prisons if convicted.
The FRCS and Fiji navy recently stepped up its surveillance of boats in Pacific waters, introducing state-of-the-art naval satellite technology to track boats via GPS; providing muscle to a dedicated border force drugs unit.
FRCS officials told the court last week they were suspicious of Shenanigans making its way through the Pacific because the vessel was not “blinking” or “pinging” on its system, which led them to believe the yacht had its GPS turned off.
They were also suspicious as Shenanigans was following the same “sensitive” route as a boat called Friday Freedom in 2011, the court heard.
Drugs worth $78 million were seized upon Friday Freedom’s arrival in Bundaberg, Queensland, in 2011.
The recent introduction of the advanced tracking technology and crack down on drug importation by the island nation appeared to have caught drug smugglers using Fiji as a highway for cocaine transportation to Australia and New Zealand largely unawares, the sources said.
Originally published as Cocaine found ditched in Fiji sea and on remote islands in weeks after Shenanigans raid
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