Head Hunter jailed in drugs case lived life of
Undercover police officers paid $100,000 by Head Hunters to supply ephedrine, Class-b drug needed to manufacture methamphetamine. The drugs were later found with $10,000 in a bucket buried at the sand dunes of Papamoa beach.
A senior patched member of the Head Hunters who accrued more than $1 million in unexplained cash over a three-year period — the enormous profits of a drug-dealing network he controlled in the Bay of Plenty — has been sentenced to 12 years and 1 month in prison.
Stacy Walton Dennis Paora appeared in the High Court at Rotorua this morning after making eleventh hour admissions on the eve of his trial, more than three years after he was arrested in December 2016.
The Tauranga man pleaded guilty to participating in an organised criminal group, 11 counts of supplying methamphetamine, four counts of possessing the Class-a drug for supply, one charge of conspiring to deal in ephedrine, and one charge of unlawful possession of a pistol.
The gun was found hidden inside the false bottom of an LPG canister in a wardrobe in October 2019, along with $23,000 cash. Paora was on bail at the time.
As well as facing an inevitable prison sentence, the 35-year-old forfeited property, cars, gold jewellery and cash seized under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act he accrued through his drug-dealing over several years.
A reconstruction of his financial affairs by the Waikato police asset recovery unit shows Paora had access to more than $1 million in unexplained cash between January 2014 and December 2016.
He boasted of making $10,000 a day, according to intercepted phone conversations, and lived a lavish lifestyle by hosting parties at penthouse apartments.
The hearing began with powerful addresses by two of Paora’s uncles, Wes Bowen and Wharehoka Wano, who spoke directly to their nephew and Justice Anne Hinton.
They spoke of the loving, loyal, strong and smart young man they knew, their dismay at the crimes Paora admitted, and urged him to use his time in prison to learn new skills and become the leader they needed him to be.
“I’m disappointed with the charges. I work in our tribal community and I’ve seen the havoc that methamphetamine wreaks among our people,” said Wano, the chief executive of the Taranaki iwi.
“You’re a leader Stacy, and I need you to go through this journey and come back to be the leader of your generation.”
Anna Pollett, the Crown Solicitor for Tauranga, said an aggravating feature of Paora’s crimes was that he was on bail at the time for different alleged offending.
Those bail conditions were relaxed on compassionate grounds, in order for Paora to visit his ailing father in hospital. Instead, Paora used it for Head Hunter “church” meetings and running his drug syndicate.
“He was loyal to Head Hunters, over his wha¯nau,” said Pollett.
She said Paora had enjoyed the strong support of his family over many years, arguing that any discount on his final sentence for becoming disconnected to his
Ma¯ori culture or trauma he suffered should be limited.
“He chose gang life. He chose commercial drug offending. And he was leading that drug syndicate,” said Pollett.
That’s because he’s a leader, said Justice Hinton. “He should be leading his iwi, instead of the blinking gang.”
Barrister Ron Mansfield, Paora’s lawyer, said his client was a loving husband and father, intelligent and polite, who had drifted into gang life but previously had only minor convictions.
It was too simplistic to say Paora chose the gang life over his family, said Mansfield, when it was clear he was also a dedicated family man as well as a gang member.
He said his client had drifted into alcohol and drug abuse after suffering a “personal trauma” of abuse at the hands of relative, which a report writer described as self-medication.
This anger led him down a path of joining the Head Hunters — whom Paora sees as an extension of his wha¯ nau, giving him a sense of belonging and success as a “warrior“.
“The seed of that drift was the personal trauma . . . sadly, this court sees that time and time again,