Fiji is now dealing with a major issue after revelations today that we have two cases of cocaine missing with a total value of almost $50 million from the Suva High Court Exhibit Room – in one case, the Police and authorities had not revealed to the public since March this year that 12.9 kilograms of cocaine had gone missing, and in the second case, 39.5 kilograms of cocaine were missing from the Joshua Aziz Rahman case.
Acting Director CID, Acting Senior Superintendent of Police, Peni Tuivaga today confirmed that 12.9 kilograms of cocaine was reported missing from the High Court Exhibit Room from the John Nikolic case, and a report was lodged by Chief Registrar, Tomasi Bainivalu on the 26th of March this year.
He says they are following up some leads and got some statements of witnesses.
SSP Tuivaga says it could be the same thing happening with the other case, and they are still investigating.
When asked by fijivillage News on why the people have not been informed about this since March this year, SSP Tuivaga says in some investigations, they do not want to put out the information because there are some suspects out there who might get to know the information.
He says all the cocaine is stolen in this case.
Looking at the second case - fijivillage News was informed on the 14th of September this year that the cocaine from the Joshua Aziz Rahman case was missing.
Rahman was sentenced in 2021.
When we asked Police Commissioner, Rusiate Tudravu today on when the Judicial Department gave the information to the police that the drugs were missing from the Rahman case, he said that he can only confirm that they found out that the drugs were missing when they checked the exhibit room on the 15th of September this year, and then found 7 bars missing.
Tudravu says there was CCTV and biometrics installed at the Court House Exhibit Room, but most of them were not in operation.
When asked by fijivillage News whether the CCTV and biometrics were tampered with, Tudravu says that will be determined during the forensic investigation.
He also stresses that once police hand over the exhibits to the courts, it is the judiciary that is supposed to be doing the checks.
Tudravu says police also do not provide security at the court exhibit rooms.
However he confirms they are now in the process of discussing the security arrangements for the court exhibit rooms.
Totogo Police are now providing security at the Suva Court House.
He says they had a discussion with the Acting Attorney General, Acting DPP and the Permanent Secretatry for Justice, and how they can set up the security measures going forward.
When asked on whether there will be a full audit of all the exhibits in the courts as we have cases here of cocaine missing and flour filled in bars, Tudravu says for transparency and checking purposes, the judiciary should look at a full audit of all exhibits.
He confirms that checks are being conducted at all police exhibit rooms around the country.
Tudravu says he is concerned and he wants all the drug exhibits to be centralised.
He says that is the strategy and to ensure they are not kept at the individial police stations but he cannot comment on the judiciary.
There are 6 persons of interest from the Judicial Department in relation to the 39 missing cocaine bars from the Rahman case valued at $31 million - with 32 bars filled with flour.
1 of them is overseas and is allegedly related to a senior official.
Questions are being asked about when this person left the country.
Tudravu says the 6 had access to the exhibit room.
He says people should not assume anything and trust the process.
When asked on why the case of 12.9 kilograms of cocaine was being kept as a secret from March this year and a confirmation on the latest case regarding the Rahman drugs only came out when fijivillage News started asking questions from the 14th of September, Tudravu says nothing is being kept as a secret as once a report is lodged, they do their investigations.
Tudravu says the public does not have to know all reports because it can jeopardise the investigations.
He says they assess first as they are the ones who let the public know, not for the people to dictate to the police, and the integrity of the process has to be protected because police take people to court so if they say to the public or not, that is their prerogative but for transparency, progress on cases will be given out when asked.
When asked on drugs missing from March and we are then stumbling into another one, Tudravu says it is very concerning, and he only hopes that people understand that all these things happening is a great concern to the Police.
Tudravu says some people are saying they are hiding things, they are not investigating it quickly, and there seems to be a perception that they are part of this; however he says he is really serious about all this and they are investigating the cases.
The Police Commissioner says all of them are concerned – and he and the government are concerned but they cannot fast-track this.
We have sought comments from Chief Justice Salesi Temo and Chief Registrar, Tomasi Bainivalu.
Stay with us for developments.
