18 Sep 2007

Fiji cocaine seizure believed to be headed for Australia

9:58 am on 18 September 2007

2-kg of cocaine seized by Fiji police in Nadi last Thursday is believed to have been bound for Australia.

This follows revelations in a Melbourne court that a man charged with importing cocaine was part of an operation in which couriers left Australia for Pacific island countries where they met couriers who had arrived from South America.

Australian investigators believe that Columbian syndicates have been using island countries like Fiji, Tonga, Cook Islands, Tahiti and Vanuatu to import cocaine into Australia and New Zealand.

A Columbian man and a Mexican woman, both in their 40s, appeared in the Nadi magistrate's court yesterday charged with unlawful importation and unlawful possession of illicit drugs.

Fernando Rendon and Graciela Bravo have been released on bail of 12-thousand US dollars, ordered to surrender their passports and report to the Nadi police three times a week

Their case will be called before the court on October the 1st.