Heritage says Australian businessman Sam Amine asked him if he could arrange drug shipment and offered to pay him

There have been revelations in the $2 billion methamphetamine bust case in Nadi that Australian businessman, Sam Amine had told one of the accused, David Heritage in November 2023 that a consignment of drugs was expected to arrive in Fiji, and Heritage gave evidence that Amine asked him if he could arrange the shipment and offered to pay him.

While giving his evidence in the Lautoka High Court trial, Heritage said he was running a marine repairs business called David Marine Repairs in Denarau.

He said in 2023, Sam Amine approached him and engaged him to look after Amine's jet skis and outboard motors at his workshop.

Heritage said Amine, a Lebanese, owned the workshop where Justin Ho operated.

According to records, Amine had also opened up a gym in Denarau in 2014.

Heritage said in his evidence that Sam Amine indicated that Justin Ho would give him $30,000 for the drug consignment work to cover his expenses and asked him to be in contact with Justin Ho when Amine was not around.

Heritage confirmed he agreed to take on the job.

Threema App

He confirms that Justin Ho then handed him a mobile phone with the Threema app installed on it. On this app, only Sam Amine and Justin Ho were to communicate with him using code names.

Heritage confirmed that one week before the trip, Justin Ho visited his workshop and gave him $30,000.

He said on the 20th or 21st December 2023, Amine messaged the exact coordinates indicating where he was supposed to go to locate the super yacht.

Heritage said that when they eventually got the coordinates, the yacht was too far away from Viva, the Fijian border.

He said the people on the Threema app forced him to go to that location.

They managed to go to that location, but they still could not find the yacht.

When he messaged Justin Ho to inform him that the yacht was not there, Justin Ho started swearing at him and forced him to go out again.

Heritage said that it was dark, so they slept at Musket Cove and returned to Vuda Marina in the morning.

He said as soon as he got out of the car when they returned, Justin Ho came in a tinted Hyundai with a short European guy whom Justin Ho introduced as his Russian friend.

Heritage said that it was the first time he had met this Russian man.

He said the Russian started questioning him about the first trip, and when he explained that he could not find the yacht, the Russian man forced him to go out again and locate the yacht somehow.

Heritage said that the Russian man insisted in a military voice that he needed to use the same barge, and the Russian kept pressuring him and took a picture of his vehicle number plate and told him, 'I know what car you're driving, and where you live'.

He later said that as they went to Vuda Marina, the Russian man pulled out a gun and pointed it at his head and told him not to lie and arrange everything for the shipment with Justin Ho.

Heritage said in his evidence that he was warned that if not, the Russian man will start with his children, cut them into pieces and feed them to the sharks.

He said he was so scared and thought of the Russian mafia and the Russian couple that was cut into pieces and dumped in Natadola.

Heritage said when the barge arrived at Fantasy Island, he took the Russian man and dropped him at Vuda Marina, where his car was.

He said he told everything to the police except for the threatening part, because he couldn't trust the police.

Heritage said that if someone had informed the cartel, they would have come straight to him.

He believed that no one could escape the mafia and even the police wouldn't be able to protect him and his family.

Under cross-examination, Heritage agreed that in early November, he undertook to facilitate the shipment of drugs into the country and until 22nd December 2023, there had been no threats to him.

He agreed that he never went to the police or reported to anybody when he already knew that a large consignment of drugs was being brought into the country, and also when it was already offloaded and stored in his office at Denarau.

He agreed that for the whole of November 2023, he, Justin Ho and Sam Amine communicated with each other on the Threema app about the drugs being brought into the country.

He agreed that $30,000 was received to facilitate the shipment of the drugs into the country.

Heritage said he had neither seen the Russian man nor known his history until being introduced to him by Justin Ho.

He also admitted that he was expecting $2 million that was promised to facilitate the shipment of drugs into Fiji so that it could improve his business.

He said that Justin Ho had control and the keys to the warehouse where the drugs were kept.

He said he was only paid to paint the floor of that warehouse around the middle of January by Sam Amine.

Heritage said Justin Ho had also told him that Sam Amine was charged and remanded in Australia for drug-related offences. He also agreed, having told the police that the coordinates were given to him by Justin Ho and not by Sam Amine through the App.

He denied deleting the WhatsApp messages because he wanted to hide his conversations with the Russian man that took place before 20th December 2023.

He explained that he changed his guilty plea to a not guilty plea after a discussion with his wife so that he could tell his side of the story.

He still feels the fear instilled in him by the Russian man, but he now dares to reveal the Russian connection after discussing it with his wife and setting up lights around his house for protection.