John Nikolic: Former horse trainer found guilty of drug smuggling

Former Melbourne horse trainer John Nikolic is looking at many years – and possibly life — in a Fiji prison after being found guilty of drug smuggling and possessing undeclared weapons.

Former Melbourne horse trainer and father of two John Nikolic is looking at many years – and possibly life - in a Fiji prison after being found guilty of drug smuggling and possessing undeclared weapons.

The guilty verdict comes 10 days after his wife Yvette walked free from the Suva High Court, having been found not guilty of all charges.

In handing down his guilty verdict to John Nikolic this afternoon, High Court judge Daniel Goundar said he accepted the prosecution’s case that Nikolic was in charge of the yacht Shenanigans and knew there were drugs on the boat.

He said Nikolic had tried to interrupt the search efforts by attempting self-harm.

A sentencing hearing will now be held on March 8.

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John Nikolic has been found guilty over charges of drug smuggling and weapons offences.. Picture: Gary Ramage

Drug importation in Fiji carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Other foreign drug smugglers have typically received sentences of between 15 and 20 years in prison.

Earlier in the day the court’s three assessors all also found Nikolic guilty of the importation of illicit drugs and possessing undeclared weapons and ammunition.

In the Fiji courts systems, the three assessors – who are educated members of the public – sit in court each day and listen to evidence presented throughout a trial, before providing their ‘view’ at the end.

Yvette Nikolic, the wife of John Nikolic pictured back in Melbourne after she was found not guilty.

The judge presiding over the case is expected to take into consideration the individual opinions of assessors but is certainly not bound by them and can (and quite often does) make a different – binding - ruling of his own.

John Nikolic arrived smiling at the Suva High Court this morning; the first time he has been to smile when alighting from the prison truck throughout the court proceedings.

He appeared relaxed and did not show emotion as the assessors, and later Justice Goundar, delivered their guilty verdicts.

The Nikolics on their yacht Shenanigans.

Sources said he had been seen to smile quite frequently since Yvette had walked free.

Thirteen bars of cocaine, believed to be worth as much as AUD$30million, ecstasy tablets, two undeclared guns and ammunition was found on the Nikolics’ yacht Shenanigans when it was searched by Fiji customs officers on June 22 last year.

When the drugs were found, the court heard John Nikolic took sole responsibility for their presence and was heard to say he owed dangerous people a lot of money, and that a Colombian had put something in a bag on the boat.

He also told customs officers he wanted to be the one to tell Yvette “of what he’d done”, and shortly afterwards collapsed of a deliberate drug overdose.

John Nikolic and his wife Yvette sold their house on the Gold Coast in July 2017, before travelling to Florida to buy a yacht and setting off on the “adventure of a lifetime” on the high seas early the next year.

The loved-up couple sailed from Florida, to Colombia, through Panama and across the Pacific, before Shenanigans was raided at Fiji’s Denarau Marina.

Originally published as John Nikolic: Former horse trainer found guilty of drug smuggling