Cocaine tested positive twice before High Court storage

Cocaine exhibits at the centre of a Police investigation had tested positive twice and showed no signs of tampering when they were tendered in court, Police confirmed today.

Commissioner of Police Rusiate Tudravu said records established that the drugs tested positive for cocaine in February 2019 and again during a court-requested purity test in July 2019.

The exhibits were later deposited in the High Court vault on March 25, 2021.

“It has been established through records that the drugs which were kept in the custody of the Fiji Police, initially confirmatory tests conducted in February 2019, tested positive for cocaine.

“Another purity test was conducted on 26 July 2019, as requested by the court, and tested positive for cocaine.

“On 25 March 2021, the exhibits were deposited to the High Court vault.

“Investigations are now trying to piece together the timeline of events following this process.”

When questioned whether the cocaine could already have been missing or tampered with when it was handed over to the High Court, Mr Tudravu referred the question to Deputy Director Forensics Superintendent of Police Sakiusa Jitoko.

“Okay, there’s a process in place. I’ll just let the Deputy Director explain the process that is done in court in that question.”

Seals intact

Mr Jitoko explained that after purity testing, exhibits were sealed at the Police laboratory by the Principal Scientific Officer.

“Okay, once the purity test was completed, then the exhibits are sealed at our labs by our Principal Scientific Officer.

“When we seal it with our labels and the signatures of the sealing officer is placed on the covering seal, that is, we will never open, anybody should never open the seal until it is tendered in court.

“When it is tendered in court, the Principal Scientific Officer or whoever is the chemistry officer who is summoned to attend court with evidence will ensure that there is the same package with his or her initial on the sealing packet. That will confirm that there is no tampering. And so was in this case.”

The confirmation narrows the focus of the investigation to what happened after the exhibits were tendered in court.

The alleged tampering was later discovered during an inspection involving a senior judiciary official, a senior Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions official, the investigating officer and the crime scene investigation officer.

Seven bars of cocaine were found to be missing.

Police then tested the remaining parcels, which returned negative for traces of illicit drugs.

“Based on the discovery of the missing seven bars and tampering of evidence, it was decided to test the remaining parcels, which returned negative for any traces of illicit drugs.”

Police are now working to reconstruct the timeline of events following the court process.