Fiji launches largest-ever drugs trial as the country tackles growing meth scourge

RNZ News

12 hours ago

By Fiji reporter
Lice Movono
,
Liam Fox
and
Doug Dingwall
, ABC
The Lautoka High Court in Fiji heard from witnesses in the opening days of the nation's largest-ever drugs trial last week.
Photo:
ABC News / Lice Movono
It started with Fiji's
largest-ever drug bust
, seizing more than 4 tonnes of methamphetamine estimated at $FJ2 billion ($1.37b) in value.
More than a year after police made the record haul in the country's tourism hub Nadi, seven people stood trial last week on several drug charges stemming from the January 2024 raid.
A nation
grappling with a growing meth scourge
watched closely, as trial witnesses gave evidence revealing the alleged methods of a transnational meth trade.
What witnesses described was an alleged drug exchange late in 2023 involving a satellite phone, a superyacht and a meeting on the high seas.
As state prosecutor John Rabuku opened his case on Monday at the High Court in Lautoka, north of Nadi, he called Fiji an emerging "hub for transnational drug trafficking and organised crime networks across the Pacific".
And he told the court that people like the men on trial were part of that phenomenon.
State prosecutors opened their case in the drugs trial at the High Court last week.
Photo:
ABC News / Lice Movono
"Such recreational drugs like methamphetamines are addictive and [are] undeniably linked to escalating violent crime rates, money laundering, unexplained wealth, corruption and the [increase] in HIV," he said.
"It is through the collective participation of people like the accused persons, sitting in this box this morning, and their powerful local and overseas counterparts that such clandestine transnational drug trafficking networks have grown and thrived here in Fiji."
Approximately 1.1 ton of white substances in crystal and powder was seized last night in Maqalevu, Nadi. Sunday, 21 January 2024
Photo:
Fiji Police Force
The trial involves a record number of locals to be jointly accused in a single court case. While the seven accused men pleaded not guilty, two people entered guilty pleas before the trial started.
It is regarded in Fiji as a test for the justice system and its fitness to confront cases involving transnational drug trade allegations.
Defence lawyers have told the court their clients were motivated by fear of drug cartels and acting under duress.
Fiji meth bust.
Photo:
Fiji Police
It is a case that has encountered delays.
The trial, expected to last more than two weeks, is scheduled to hear from up to 60 witnesses.
Among them are individuals granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony, some of whom testified last week.
Fiji prosecutors allege that two of the men on trial, David Heritage and Justin Ho, arranged for the methamphetamine to be shipped into the country.
Along with seven other co-accused, the prosecution have alleged that the two moved the drugs to locations around Nadi, including Denarau Island, which is home to major international hotel chains and is widely considered the jewel in Fiji's tourism crown.
Heritage and Ho have pleaded not guilty to charges of unlawful importation of illicit drugs and to unlawful possession of illegal drugs.
David Heritage has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from a meth bust conducted in January 2024.
Photo:
ABC News / Lice Movono
Five other accused men - Louie Logaivau, Ratu Aporosa Davelevu, Jale Aukerea, Viliame Colawailiku and Ratu Osea Levula - have also pleaded not guilty to unlawful possession of illicit drugs.
Another two, Sakiusa Tuva and Cathy Tuirabe, pleaded guilty before the trial and were convicted on Monday of unlawful possession of illicit drugs.
Witnesses, who cannot be named due to a court suppression order, began the trial last week with their accounts of the alleged drug shipment that brought more than 4 tonnes of meth ashore at Fantasy Island, near Nadi.
They described sailing on a barge to make a rendezvous with a superyacht in December 2023.
Justin Ho is one of the co-accused in Fiji's largest-ever drugs trial.
Photo:
ABC News / Lice Movono
One witness said the barge made three trips, passing through tourism hotspots in the Yasawa and Mamanuca island groups.
But the court heard they didn't meet the yacht on the first two attempts, and after the second trip, the barge crew spent a night in an upmarket resort.
On the third trip, the witness said he received the yacht's coordinates from a man he believed was Russian, speaking via satellite phone.
He said the barge sailed beyond Fijian waters to meet the superyacht, which was crewed by three foreigners, one of whom he described as Hispanic.
"I was scared, I knew something different was being offloaded," the witness said.
"I have never seen drugs before but I suspected it was drugs."
He testified the haul was so large, the containers had to be unloaded from the vessel and onto a truck via a crane.
It was at another of Fiji's top tourist destinations, Denarau Island, that prosecutors allege several of the accused men stored and moved the meth.
A key witness told the court he was working at a Denarau business owned by Ho when he alleges he was asked to move methamphetamines into a marine repair shop owned by Heritage.
He said he and one of the accused men, Logaivau, spent about nine hours unpacking the containers - some leaking white crystals.
Prosecutors allege that some of the co-accused men then transferred the drugs to a house at Voivoi Settlement in Legalega, Nadi, and moved some of the meth to another house in Maqalevu on Denarau, where police conducted their raids in January last year.
John Rabuku, the state prosecutor, told the court police discovered about 797 plastic containers at Legalega containing white crystals believed to be methamphetamine.
"The enormity of the methamphetamine consignment being 4.1 [tonnes] indicates that there could be no mistake and…no doubt that each accused person knew that it was methamphetamine," he said.
And he alleged much of the meth seized was bound for overseas.
All but one of the prosecution's witnesses have given their testimony. Police are trying to locate one witness who did not appear in court last week.
The trial will resume on Monday with Fijian and Australian police officers set to give evidence.
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ABC