In Fiji's Suva High Court, the very room meant to preserve the evidence of crime has become a site of crime itself — over 52 kilograms of cocaine gone, some of it replaced with flour, a substitution that reads less like concealment and more like contempt. The thefts, spanning multiple seizures and months of institutional blindness, expose a gap between the moment drugs are seized and the moment justice is served — a gap wide enough, it turns out, for millions of dollars of narcotics to walk through. As Fiji grapples with its emergence as a Pacific transit hub for transnational trafficking, the
52kg of cocaine vanishes from Fiji court evidence room, replaced with flour
Once it is deposited, we are not there to guard it
Mark
How does 52 kilograms of cocaine just walk out of a high court evidence room? That's not a small oversight.
Mimi
The security was broken. CCTV cameras weren't working, the biometric locks were faulty, and six people had access to the room. It's the kind of failure that looks almost designed once you see it.
Luke
But we should be clear—the police confirmed the CCTV and biometrics were faulty during the theft period. That's their assessment. We don't know yet if that was negligence or something else.
Mark
And the flour swap—that's almost theatrical. Someone replaced 32 kilograms with flour?
Mimi
Yes. It's brazen enough that it suggests whoever did it wasn't worried about being caught quickly. They had time to do the swap carefully.
Luke
Though we should note: the police have identified six people of interest with access, but they haven't charged anyone. One is overseas. The investigation is still active.
Mark
What does this mean for the cases that depend on this evidence?
Mimi
The Joshua Aziz Rahman trial is the big one—that's the case the 32 kilograms was supposed to be evidence for. If the drugs are gone, the case becomes much harder to prosecute.
Luke
Though we don't know the full status of that trial or what other evidence exists. The source doesn't say the case is collapsing, just that the evidence is missing.
Mark
And the broader picture—Fiji is a major trafficking hub now?
Mimi
It's become a transit point for massive quantities of cocaine moving through the Pacific. In January they seized 2.6 tonnes in a single raid. The missing 52 kilograms is significant, but it's a fraction of what's flowing through.
Luke
The Australian government just announced $600 million for a Pacific-wide drug initiative. That tells you how serious this has become regionally.
The Pulse
- More than 52 kilograms of cocaine has disappeared from a supposedly secure Fiji High Court evidence room — in one case replaced with flour, a detail that signals not just theft but audacity.
- Security infrastructure meant to prevent exactly this had quietly collapsed: CCTV cameras were non-operational, biometric access controls were faulty, and six people held keys to the room.
- A jurisdictional blind spot deepened the vulnerability — once drugs entered the court's custody, police stepped back, leaving an institution with 'its own arrangements' to guard tens of millions of dollars in seized narcotics.
- The missing drugs were tied to active and ongoing legal proceedings, meaning the thefts don't just represent lost evidence — they potentially unravel prosecutions years in the making.
- Fiji's courts have launched a full audit of all drug and cash exhibits, while Australia has pledged $600 million toward a Pacific-wide counter-narcotics initiative, signaling the regional scale of what this single evidence room reflects.
In Fiji's Suva High Court, the very room meant to preserve the evidence of crime has become a site of crime itself — over 52 kilograms of cocaine gone, some of it replaced with flour, a substitution that reads less like concealment and more like contempt. The thefts, spanning multiple seizures and months of institutional blindness, expose a gap between the moment drugs are seized and the moment justice is served — a gap wide enough, it turns out, for millions of dollars of narcotics to walk through. As Fiji grapples with its emergence as a Pacific transit hub for transnational trafficking, the question is no longer only who is moving drugs through the country, but who is moving them out of its courthouses.
Fiji's high court evidence room has become a sieve. Over 52 kilograms of cocaine has vanished from secure storage in Suva — some of it replaced with flour, a substitution that speaks to both the brazenness and the carelessness of whoever was responsible.
The losses unfolded in layers. Thirty-two kilograms linked to the long-running trial of Fiji-Canadian national Joshua Aziz Rahman were discovered missing when police began processing a destruction order — replaced with flour. Two weeks earlier, seven kilograms had already been reported gone from the same facility. Then, under media questioning at a press conference, authorities confirmed a third disappearance: 12.9 kilograms seized in a 2018 raid on Australian horse trainer John Nikolic's yacht, held in storage while his appeals wound through the courts, had also vanished.
The security failures were stark. CCTV cameras were non-operational during the relevant period. The biometric access system was faulty. Six people held keys to the room. Police Commissioner Rusiate Tudravu acknowledged a structural gap that may have made all of this possible: once drugs are deposited in the court's evidence room, they become the judiciary's responsibility. 'Once it is deposited in the Suva High Court exhibit room, we are not there to guard it,' he said. The court's own arrangements, plainly, were not enough.
The street value of what is missing could exceed $20 million — a figure that lands differently given Fiji's growing role as a Pacific transit hub for transnational drug trafficking. In January, police seized 2.6 tonnes of cocaine worth roughly $780 million from a suspected operation in the remote northwest. That seizure is scheduled for destruction this month.
The thefts have forced a broader reckoning. Fiji's Director of Public Prosecutions acknowledged that drug destruction policies have shifted since the establishment of an anti-narcotics division in 2024, with the office now prioritizing applications to destroy exhibits rather than allowing drugs to sit in storage for years. An audit team is now moving through police stations, focused on drugs and cash. Australia, meanwhile, has pledged $600 million toward a Pacific-wide counter-narcotics initiative — a regional response to a problem that Fiji's empty evidence shelves now illustrate with uncomfortable precision.
Fiji's high court evidence room has become a sieve. Over 52 kilograms of cocaine has vanished from secure storage—some of it replaced with flour, as if the theft itself needed to be mocked. The disappearances span months and multiple seizures, each one a failure of the systems meant to hold drugs as evidence while cases move through the courts.
The most recent discovery came to light when police began processing a destruction order. Thirty-two kilograms of cocaine that had been stored at the Suva High Court for the long-running trial of Fiji-Canadian national Joshua Aziz Rahman was found to be gone, swapped for flour. Two weeks before that revelation, another seven kilograms had been reported missing from the same facility. Then, under questioning from local media at a police press conference on Wednesday, authorities confirmed a third loss: 12.9 kilograms seized during a 2018 raid on Australian horse trainer John Nikolic's yacht had also disappeared from court custody. Nikolic was convicted in 2019 of importing illicit drugs and sentenced to at least 18 years in prison. The cocaine was never destroyed because an appeals process was still underway, held in evidence storage as the legal machinery ground on.
The security failures that enabled these thefts are stark. Senior Superintendent Peni Tuivaga confirmed that CCTV cameras covering the evidence room were not operational during the period when the drugs vanished. The biometric security system designed to control access was faulty. Six people of interest had keys to the room, though one is currently overseas. Police Commissioner Rusiate Tudravu acknowledged a jurisdictional gap that may have widened the vulnerability: once drugs are deposited in the court's evidence room, they become the judiciary's responsibility, not the police's. "Once it is deposited in the Suva High Court exhibit room, we are not there to guard it," Tudravu said. The court, he noted, had its own arrangements—arrangements that plainly failed.
The street value of the missing cocaine, depending on purity, could exceed $20 million. That figure underscores what has been lost: not just evidence in criminal cases, but a massive quantity of a drug that was seized in the first place because it was moving through Fiji's ports and airports. The country has become a transit hub for transnational drug trafficking in the Pacific. In January alone, police seized 2.6 tonnes of cocaine worth roughly $780 million from a suspected operation in the remote northwest. That seizure is scheduled for destruction this month—assuming it remains in custody.
The thefts have triggered a broader reckoning. Fiji's Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions released a statement acknowledging that its policies around drug destruction have shifted since the establishment of an anti-narcotics division in 2024. The office said it is now prioritizing applications to destroy drug exhibits, a change that suggests the old system allowed drugs to languish in storage for years. Police Commissioner Tudravu announced that an audit team is now moving through all police stations, focusing specifically on drugs and cash exhibits. The scope of what they might find remains unknown.
The cocaine thefts arrive as the Australian government has begun to reckon with the scale of the problem. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced $600 million in funding this month for a Pacific-wide initiative to combat the surge of illicit drug smuggling across the region. An ABC investigation earlier this year documented widespread Australian connections in the transportation of drugs through Fiji. The missing cocaine—flour in its place, a detail that speaks to both the brazenness and the carelessness of the theft—is evidence of a system that cannot hold what it seizes.
Notable Quotes
Once it is deposited in the Suva High Court exhibit room, we are not there to guard it. They have their own arrangements.— Police Commissioner Rusiate Tudravu, explaining the jurisdictional boundary between police and court custody
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