Luxury, had $1 million in unexplained cash

whether it’s a victim or the offender,” said Mansfield.

Paora supplied just over 500g of methamphetamine, a Class-a drug, and was in possession of around 2kg over a 13-month period.

In sentencing Paora to 12 years and 1 month in prison, Justice Hinton said it was “doubtless true” that he was motivated by profit in leading a methamphetamine syndicate.

But she was also persuaded the trauma he suffered channelled him towards joining the gang, and subsequently into a “brutal and controlling” organised crime figure.

Justice Hinton set a starting point for Paora’s sentence on the methamphetamine offences at 18 years, then increased it by 9 months for the firearm conviction.

She then reduced the final sentence to 12 years and 1 month on account of his guilty plea, features identified in the cultural report about his background, his remorse and the time he spent on restrictive bail conditions.

Finally, Justice Hinton imposed a minimum period of imprisonment (MPI) as sought by the Crown. Paora must serve 50 per cent of his sentence, or six years, before being eligible to seek early release on parole.

“I acknowledge you have expressed an instinct to leave the gang, but have taken no concrete steps to do so, ” she said.

Shortly after pleading guilty to the criminal charges in February, Paora agreed to stop fighting the police asset case and handed over a house in the Bay of Plenty township of Matata¯, a Mercedes Benz, a Chevrolet Impala and two trucks. A late-model Harley Davidson he owned cannot be found. The Crown will also receive proceeds of the sale of a gold bracelet and necklace and two gold rings.

Large sums of cash were seized: $15,000, the $23,000 inside the LPG bottle, and the $10,000 found with ephedrine (the main ingredient in meth manufacture) in a bucket buried in the Papamoa dunes.

On top of that, the police kept $100,000, which the Head Hunter crew paid two undercover police officers for 1kg of ephedrine.

Paora was the principal target of a covert investigation by the Bay of Plenty organised crime unit, Operation Centurion, led by Detective Sergeant John Wilson and Detective Sergeant Kevin Morshead, which started with a suspicious house fire in Whakatane in 2014.

The house burned down a few weeks after Paora moved in and, after a scene examination, he was charged with possession of equipment and materials to manufacture methamphetamine.

The charges were thrown out by a judge for lack of evidence, but the police kept investigating and obtained High Court warrants to allow them to intercept phone conversations and plant tracking devices on vehicles. The investigation also focused on a freight forwarding business, Priority Movers, owned and operated by Paora’s partner. The police suspected the business was a cover to launder money and move drug shipments without suspicion. Their suspicion was confirmed by Paora himself.

Two undercover police officers twice hired Priority Movers to move freight between Tauranga and Auckland, implying they were shifting illicit goods. Intrigued by the prospect of making new criminal connections, Paora said to one officer: “This is my business but it’s a front. We don’t give a f*** about moving stuff but I need to know what I’m moving.”

The undercover officer inferred Paora was interested in a different sort of business deal.

A few weeks later, one of Paora’s underlings approached the officer to talk about supplying “kilos”, which the undercover agent took to mean methamphetamine. This led to a meeting where a second Head Hunter associate said he was authorised to make decisions, while “our boss” — Paora — was “banged up”. Paora was in custody on unrelated criminal charges. He wanted a steady supply of “precursor ephedrine” of around 1kg a month, to manufacture meth.

Through Head Hunter associates, Paora reached a deal where the undercover officers supplied 1kg of ephedrine, a Class-b controlled drug, for $100,000.

In December 2016, when the undercover operation terminated, the police covertly dug up the ephedrine and $10,000 in a bucket buried in the sand dunes of Papamoa Beach.

Paora blamed one his Head Hunter prospects for the loss of drugs and cash, choking and beating him as a punishment.

The police also found the pistol inside the LPG bottle. Paora’s lawyer Mansfield explained Paora obtained the weapon, not to further his criminal offending, but to protect his family after a masked gunman tried to break into their home.

“Make no mistake, methamphetamine is a scourge, and peddling this misery is all about organised crime and making money,” Detective Senior Sergeant John Wilson said at the time of Paora’s arrest.

Paora’s sentencing comes a few weeks before that of father-and-son duo, Dick and Paul Tamai, who pleaded guilty to similar meth dealing in Rotorua.

The pair were earmarked to help establish a chapter of the Head Hunters in Rotorua but were also targeted in an undercover sting.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Email editor@bayofplenty times.co.nz. Responses may be published.