Accused thought package was cash

AUCKLAND: An American arrested in New Zealand’s biggest cocaine bust was sipping a beer when panic kicked in as his colleagues opened a package to discover drugs and a tracking device inside.

Ronald Cook sen (56) and Augustin SuarezJuarez (44), of Mexico, were arrested last July after Customs found 35kg of cocaine, valued at $14 million, inside a decorated horse head statue that arrived by plane.

They are on trial charged with possessing and supplying cocaine, charges they deny.

Cook told the High Court at Auckland yesterday he and SuarezJuarez had used power tools to cut the packages out of the statue before taking some to the Crowne Plaza hotel to meet a man they knew as ‘‘David’’.

Cook never suspected the packages contained drugs and instead believed they had cash inside as part of a money laundering operation, he said.

The money was to be used to set up a business to import flooring insulation. David was supposed to first put the money into a bank account to make it clean.

But it was after Cook had cracked open a beer during a meeting with Suarez Juarez and David in a room in the Crowne Plaza that David suddenly motioned them all to be quiet. He was holding an opened package with a small ‘‘coinsized metal piece’’ with wires coming out of it.

‘‘I didn’t know what it was, but I knew that it was a concern,’’ Cook said as panic set in.

The trio quickly left the hotel. Cook and SuarezJuarez were arrested that evening in Auckland Airport’s international lounge.

Under questioning from SuarezJaurez’s counsel, Peter Kaye, Cook said his ‘‘big reason’’ for coming to New Zealand was his greed for a $50,000 payment he was to receive for moving the horse head statue and the cash contained in it.

However, prosecutor David Stevens earlier in the trial alleged the men flew to New Zealand twice, in May and June 2016, first to move the horse head statue to an apartment and then to supply cocaine extracted from it. Instead, they were caught as part of a hightech Customs and police sting.

It began when Customs discovered the packages of cocaine in the horse head.

They then repacked it with 34 packages containing flour and one containing polystyrene and a tracking device, before sending the statue on its way so that it appeared it had not been interfered with.

Police next monitored Cook and SuarezJuarez’s movements until they were finally arrested trying to leave the country, Mr Stevens said.

The trial continues. — NZN