Indian national jailed for 13 years

Indian national Muskaan Balaggan, who has been found guilty of attempting to export 521.6 grams of cocaine to Australia, has been sentenced to 13 years imprisonment today.

US national Elton Xhemali has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of eight years for the same offence.

While sentencing the two, High Court Judge Justice Daniel Goundar said the association between Balaggan and Xhemali at a hotel was part of their common plan to take illicit drugs from Fiji to Australia where Xhemali was the facilitator and Balaggan was the courier.

Judge Goundar said that Fiji does not have a sophisticated intelligence service to detect drug smuggling and border security measures are not apt to deal with sophisticated drug smuggling.

He said that any punishment for dealing in hard drugs must reflect the vulnerability of Fiji becoming a hub for international drug smugglers.


Story by: Praneeta Prakash