News

Yacht owner in Denarau drug bust case charged

June 24, 2018 7:51 pm

The owner of the yacht where cocaine and ammunition was found during a joint drug raid last Friday at the Denarau Mariner has been charged.

The accused who is a woman in her late 40s has been charged with one count of unlawful importation of illicit drugs, one count of found in possession of illicit drugs and one count of failure to declare firearms and ammunition.

She will be produced at the Nadi Magistrates Court today.

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Four people were initially taken into custody while a fifth suspect a fourty-five-year-old man is admitted in critical condition at the Lautoka Hospital.

The man identified as controversial Australian horse trainer John Nikolic allegedly consumed an unknown substance during the raid.

Nikolic, who is based on the Gold Coast, has had a scandal-riddled decade, receiving a year-long ban from racing in 2015 for doping a horse.

He was also accused of the murder of Victorian racing figure Les Samba, who was gunned down in 2011.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed to Herald Sun that his family is being offered consular assistance.

The other three suspects have been questioned and released.

A joint operation on Friday last week by government authorities led to the seizure of the thirteen bars of Cocaine and Ecstasy tablets with an estimated value of 20 to 30 million Fijian dollars in addition to guns, ammunition and 15 thousand US dollars in undeclared currency.