Ex-High Court official questioned over missing cocaine evidence

A former senior High Court official is believed to be linked to the disappearance of seven bars of cocaine evidence from the High Court exhibit room in Suva.

The Fiji Sun understands the former official resigned earlier this year and travelled overseas.

The former official is also understood to have recently returned to Fiji and was questioned by Police over the weekend.

However, Fiji Police Force spokesperson Wame Bautolu did not confirm or deny whether the former official had been questioned.

“Please allow the investigation to proceed normally,” he said.

Bautolu said a statement would be issued once someone was charged.

The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) is investigating the disappearance of the seven bars of cocaine linked to a high-profile drug case.

The missing exhibits were discovered during an official inspection on Tuesday, September 15, in the presence of senior judiciary officials, a senior representative from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Police officers and a Crime Scene Investigations (CSI) officer who documented the process.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Crime Loraini Seru said officials conducting the inspection discovered that exhibits connected to the case had allegedly been tampered with.

The inspection found that seven bars were missing from the original 39 bars of cocaine stored in the court exhibit room.

Chief Justice Salesi Temo had previously criticised the prosecution over its failure to seek the destruction of the 39.5kg of cocaine during the early stages of the drug case.