Tararua P dealers are off to prison
Two men who acted as mules between drug kingpins and dealers have been given long jail terms.
Jansen Studz Nehemia was the Auckland-based source of methamphetamine for Logan Bunny Whaitiri, who would then run drugs to Hawke’s Bay, before taking a slice to deal to associates and users in Tararua, the Palmerston North District Court heard on Thursday.
But the business enterprise ended with them being handed long prison terms by Judge David Smith.
Whaitiri was sentenced to seven years and six months’ jail, while Nehemia was given sevens years and a month.
Nehemia admitted to supplying Whaitiri with methamphetamine, while Whaitiri admitted to possessing and dealing the drug.
Police investigation Operation Frost got wind of their activities, with Whaitiri put under the most scrutiny.
His calls and text messages were monitored live – a move requiring a High Court warrant – and police went as far as getting his and his mother’s bank records to see where the money was going.
They also applied to get his TAB betting activity, as they thought he may have been laundering drug money through TAB stores as far afield as Whanganui and Hawera.
But his drug dealing ended after he, Nehemia and another associate, Stephen Kani Reiri, were arrested in July 25, 2015, in a latenight armed offenders squad operation near Napier.
A package containing 542 grams of methamphetamine, found to be 79 per cent pure, was discovered by police behind the dashboard of the car.
Reiri, who was driving the car, was found not guilty at a trial in 2016 of helping Whaitiri possess those drugs for supply.
Nehemia and Whaitiri were found to have dealt with at least 738 grams of methamphetamine, which would have a street value of about $700,000.
The judge said the pair would have dealt with much more, but it was impossible to prove.
The Crown alleged they dealt at least 1 kilogram.
Defence lawyer Adam Simperingham, appearing for both defendants, said neither of them were high up the supply chain.
Nehemia was a ‘‘go-between’’, sourcing drugs from higher up the chain to pass on, while Whaitiri was largely working as a drug mule.
Both were now clean of methamphetamine and committed to leaving the drug behind, he said.
A letter from a Manawatu Prison chaplain said Nehemia had made especially good progress while in custody, dedicating himself to his Christian faith and doing all he could to avoid falling back into his old ways.
The judge said the amount of drugs involved put the pair in the upper echelon of drug offenders. But their roles in the enterprise had to be taken into account, he said. The judge also noted neither was in a profit-sharing arrangement, with Nehemia being paid in cash and drugs for his work. The pair were given credit for the work they had done to live better lives and their guilty pleas.