Fiji: Fil­ing of Dis­clos­ures for Destruc­tion of $1bn Cocaine in Next Court Sit­ting

Pro­sec­u­tion will file dis­clos­ures relat­ing to the planned destruc­tion of cocaine seized at Vatia Wharf in Tavua, as pro­ceed­ings con­tinue in the $1bil­lion drug case before the High Court in Ba.

Four Ecuadorian nation­als charged in the mat­ter told the court they were taken from a sub­mar­ine to a boat car­ry­ing drugs and brought to Fiji.

Their defence law­yer, Shir­ley Tivao, made the sub­mis­sion before Justice Samuela Qica yes­ter­day. The accused are Luciano Sanc­hez, 47, Jonathan Ber­mello, 30, Ramon Par­raga, 52, and Ale­jandro Gonza­lez, 47. They are fish­er­men and remain in cus­tody fol­low­ing the seizure of 2630 par­cels of cocaine. Ten other accused per­sons linked to the seizure were also appeared in court. Of the 14 accused, five have been gran­ted bail, which was exten­ded yes­ter­day.

The four Ecuadori­ans claim they were kid­napped by a drug car­tel and forced to trans­port cocaine to Fiji. They were ready to take their pleas yes­ter­day.

State law­yer John Rabuku said the State’s pos­i­tion differed from earlier pro­ceed­ings due to alleg­a­tions of human traf­fick­ing.

“In earlier appear­ances, we indic­ated we would not oppose remand because there were issues of human traf­fick­ing we are deal­ing with, based on inform­a­tion from the Bel­ize Police Depart­ment,” he said.

“All four accused gave cau­tion inter­views and raised duress.” Mr Rabuku said pro­sec­u­tion must prove bey­ond reas­on­able doubt that the accused per­sons were not act­ing under duress when the drugs entered Fiji.

Police are invest­ig­at­ing the claims, includ­ing liais­ing with over­seas coun­ter­parts, to verify whether the accused are vic­tims

https://www.pressreader.com/fiji/fiji-sun/20260422/281548002478323