Porirua dealer a big player: top cop

Peter Jordan Robinson was a big player in Porirua’s drug scene at the time he was arrested, one of the city’s top cops says.

More than 2 kilograms of synthetic drugs, cannabis, $193,000 and firearms were seized when police swooped on the 23-year-old drug dealer’s operation in November 2017.

Detective Sergeant Mike Tohill spearheaded the operation.

Yesterday, he said Robinson was considered a big player. ‘‘It was great to remove the guns from the street but it does show the lengths people will go to to protect their drugs.’’

Robinson, also known as James Lopa, had five firearms, including a Ruger .22 calibre rifle and two loaded 25-shot magazines, a pump action shotgun with a pistol grip and a 12 gauge semi–automatic shotgun

Police found hundreds of rounds of ammunition, including 48 hollowpoint bullets for the .22 rifle

Detective Sergeant Dave Jones said yesterday that police had become used to finding guns associated with drug operations.

While the synthetic drug problem might not be as high-profile as it was in the year of Robinson’s arrest, which saw a four-day cluster of 21 hospital admissions and one death, Jones said the issue had not gone away.

‘‘We know it’s still a problem here in Porirua but we’re not having the medical side of that. But we had two deaths in 2018 we can attribute to synthetics.’’

Porirua Deputy Mayor Izzy Ford was shocked by the Robinson case and said it was concerning that amount of money was being made from selling drugs. ‘‘It is a national issue and it’s comforting to know our police are working on eradicating this poison from our communities.’’