WEEKEND READ
AUSTRALIAN Federal Police tipped off Fiji authorities to the possibility of drugs on the luxury yacht of Yvette and John Nikolic, a Fiji criminal and human rights lawyer said yesterday.
“From my sources on the inside, I have been told Australian Federal Police were involved on this occasion,” Aman Ravindra-Singh exclusively told News Corp Australia in Lautoka.
“The Australian Federal Police was involved and provided the tip that led to the raid and the subsequent arrest of the Australian couple on the yacht at Denarau.
“In my experience, Fijian police would not have had the intelligence or capacity to know there was a certain amount of drugs on a yacht, so obviously there would have had to have been overseas assistance which led to the subsequent raid and capture.
“I am absolutely certain of that.”
Former Melbourne horse trainer John Nikolic, 45, remains in Lautoka hospital after drinking a toxic cocktail of liquid cocaine and a white powder, understood to be methamphetamine, either during or after the raid by Fiji Customs and police on the parents Karen and John (Sr) r) Nikolic have been seen visiting their gravely ill family member.
They are also on Ms Nikolic’s prison visitor list.
The AFP and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton refused to comment on whether AFP had been involved in the tipoff when asked yesterday, with AFP saying it was a Fijian Police matter.
But the Fijian police force has trumpeted how “closely” it works with the AFP on “the interception of hard drugs”.
A Fiji police press release