Jail for celebrities’ drug suppliers
Four men who were part of a high-profile Auckland cocaine bust have been named but the identities of the prominent people they supplied drugs to remain hidden.
Mobeen Bhikoo, Benjamin McLellan, Tafa Misipati and Samuel Montgomery appeared before Justice Sally Fitzgerald in the High Court at Auckland yesterday morning for sentencing.
They faced dozens of drug possession and supply charges from 2016 and were due to go to trial in early October before amending their pleas to 28 charges.
Thirteen charges were also dropped.
Bhikoo was sentenced to a total of three years and four months in prison. McLellan was also sentenced to three years and four months’ imprisonment.
Misipati was jailed for two years and 11 months.
And Montgomery was sentenced to eight months’ home detention.
The identities of those the men supplied the drugs to are suppressed, but they are prominent people in music, business and sports circles.
Ron Mansfield, who represented Bhikoo, McLellan and Montgomery, said the trio were not on the street selling drugs but were “supplying to those within [their circle] who were already using the drug”.
McLellan is a business manager while Bhikoo is a hairdresser. Misipati is a professional kickboxer and per- sonal trainer and Montgomery was a clothing distributor.
The court heard that Montgomery now works in the construction industry.
Justice Fitzgerald said there appeared to be a perception that cocaine was “socially acceptable and the thing to do” which needed to be dispelled.
Fashion designer Christopher Lay also earlier pleaded guilty to 17 cocaine-related charges as part of the covert police operation.
Lay, and senior Hells Angel gang member Anthony “Ants” Nansen, and Bhikoo were the three original targets in Operation Ceviche, an investigation by the National Organised Crime Group, which led to the seizure of 760g of cocaine worth $300,000, and $81,000 cash last August.