Mongrel Mob boss denied parole
"In our view, a community-based programme will not be sufficient to keep Mr Sua safe without the platform of a recently completed drug treatment programme." Parole Board
A Mongrel Mob boss who has been jailed multiple times for methamphetamine dealing is set to finally get on top of his drug issue – and will need to if he wants to make it out of jail.
Jeremiah Christopher Sua, 47, is a preacher’s son who rose to become the Mongrel Mob’s Manawatu¯ chapter president.
He was jailed in 2014 for five years and 11 months for supplying and conspiring to supply methamphetamine in Manawatu¯ , after the police investigation Operation Cargo.
The investigation also netted Sua’s then-wife Kimberley Meihana, who was given 12 months’ home detention for her role. The Standard understands the couple have since split up.
She was given the same sentence in November after once again being caught up in a methamphetamine supply ring, that time being part of a group, including a Justice of the Peace, who ran a dealing operation on behalf of a Manawatu¯ Prison inmate.
While Meihana was sentenced in November, Sua was considered for, and ultimately declined, an early release by the Parole Board.
In its report, the board described Sua as having a ‘‘dreadful criminal history’’, specifically citing his jail sentences for conspiring to deal methamphetamine in 2000 and possessing the same drug for supply in 2004.
He was unable to complete some programmes in prison because he had appealed his convictions, despite having pleaded guilty to the crimes.
He alleged his lawyer had let him down during his case by saying there was no tenable defence to the crimes. Sua also said his lawyer negotiated a plea arrangement with the Crown without his authority.
That appeal was dismissed in October, enabling Sua to complete ‘‘some very necessary and overdue programmes’’, the board said.
He is due to finish the Mauri Tu Pae programme, aimed at Ma¯ ori inmates at medium risk of reoffending, in December.
That would likely be followed by a drug treatment programme in early 2018 - something the board said in 2016 they wanted him to do before release.
The board heard a proposal from an unnamed supporter of Sua’s about a community-based programme. After consideration, the board did not think it was the best way to go.
‘‘With Mr Sua’s history of failure on all sorts of programmes in the past, we are looking at things, as we must, from the point of view of our paramount consideration of safety to the community.
‘‘In our view, a communitybased programme will not be sufficient to keep Mr Sua safe without the platform of a recently completed drug treatment programme.’’
The board made the drug treatment programme a relevant activity under the Parole Act, meaning the prison director must tell the board when Sua has completed the programme.
The board would then decide if Sua should be called for a hearing sooner than December 2018, when the board has next scheduled to see him.
‘‘Mr Sua does need to bear in mind that his chances of parole following the completion of the drug treatment programme may very well be enhanced by a communitybased programme,’’ the board said.
‘‘We mention that to make sure that he does not come to the board simply relying on completing the drug treatment programme. We say that because of his past failures.’’