Drug dealers sentenced
A P-addict with a $1000 a week habit and his injured sidekick formed a lucrative business partnership peddling drugs in what a judge says is an unsuccessful ‘‘war on methamphetamine’’.
But this was one battle authorities won – a police operation uncovered the offending and the two drug dealers have each been sentenced to 12 months’ home detention.
Elisha Robert Johnson, 26, and Waide Douglas Keith, 25, were convicted on charges of dealing methamphetamine, ecstasy, cannabis, and LSD.
The pair worked together to buy drugs they repackaged and sold to friends and acquaintances.
‘‘There’s a war on methamphetamine,’’ Judge Gerard Lynch told the Levin District Court on Monday.
‘‘It’s one that’s being well and truly lost. Methamphetamine is well and truly addictive and it doesn’t take much for the user to get hooked, and then for their lives to unravel, which both of these people show.’’
Between June and August last year, Levin police ran Operation Fog to track the men’s activities, recording a string of texts showing drug sales with their buyers.
A final raid on houses, garages and vehicles associated with the dealing pair netted more than 90 cannabis plants and seedlings, dried cannabis, cannabis oil, methamphetamine, ecstasy tablets, LSD, electronic scales, more than $5000 in cash, and homemade shotgun shells.
Lynch said in 2016 Johnson, convicted on eight charges, was in a car crash and suffered serious spinal damage, ending his work as a courier. He was mostly dependent on a wheelchair.
His friend Keith, convicted on 13 charges, had increasingly become addicted to methamphetamine, to the point he was sometimes buying $1000 of the drug a week for his own use.
Keith was higher up in the operation than Johnson, sourcing most of the drugs and dividing them up for sale, while Johnson sold them ‘‘on the street’’.
Johnson was just as responsible for the operation as Keith, because he also manufactured cannabis oil and began acquiring drugs for resale, Lynch said.
Lynch reduced Johnson’s sentence because jail time would be more severe for him due to his injuries.
Keith’s sentence was reduced because he had no previous convictions, showed remorse, and had shown unusual dedication to dealing with his addiction by working with two drug and alcohol organisations.