Court

Cocaine evidence produced in multi-million dollar drug trial

March 23, 2021 4:25 pm

Joshua Aziz Rahman

Evidence bags of 39 bars of cocaine were tendered in court today.

This was done during the questioning of a prosecution witness in the drug trial against Canadian national Joshua Aziz Rahman.

Rahman has been in custody for two years now and faces one count of unlawful possession of illicit drugs.

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Prosecution witness, Principal Scientist for the Fiji Police Force, Miliana Werebauinona confirmed in court that she received and tested the white substance for cocaine on the 15th of February, 2019.

Werebauinona says samples from the 39 bars were taken for analysis and following testing and proper labelling, a report was prepared.

She also informed the court that early tests are able to pick up other forms of illicit drugs however, the tests only confirmed the white powder to be cocaine and did not detect any other substance.

Judge Justice Daniel Goundar questioned the witness, if the cocaine in court was ever tested for its purity.

Werebauinona, testified that the purity was not tested.

When questioned by the Defence if the investigating officer requested the level of purity, Werebauinona says this can be done if required by the court.

It is alleged that Rahman had in his possession 39 bars of a white substance weighing 39.5 kilograms with an estimated street value of $31m.

The bars were allegedly recovered in February 2019 when police raided his home in Caubati, Nasinu, and later tested positive for cocaine.

The trial will continue tomorrow.