Cocaine linchpin’s deportation delayed
Covid-19 pandemic forces Parole Board to revoke deportation order of ex-footballer jailed for 17 years for importing Class A drug. By Bevan Hurley.
An ex-football player who led a multi-million dollar cocaine importation ring has had his deportation delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Kindness Agwu was sentenced to 17 years’ jail after being found guilty of 15 counts of importing and supplying about 4kg of the Class A drug.
Agwu had been due to be released on May 12, but his parole and deportation was revoked due to the coronavirus pandemic, Parole Board chairperson Sir Ron Young said.
He joins a growing list of at least nine prisoners due to be deported who have instead remained stranded in prison, costing taxpayers thousands of dollars each day.
Agwu and several others were arrested in 2011 after a police operation dubbed Operation Dreadnought that took up thousands of man hours and spanned several continents. Ostensibly, the Nigerian had moved to New Zealand to play football, appearing for Auckland club sides Mangere United and Metro FC.
However, a jury at Auckland District Court heard Agwu was the ranking member of the New Zealand operation that ‘‘flooded’’ the streets of Auckland with the Class A drug, which had a purity of up to 85 per cent and came from South America concealed in parcels of Barbie electronic games, gemstones and food tins.
Agwu arranged shipments and wired hundreds of thousands of dollars to someone known as The Emperor in exchange. He recruited an Auckland man – who in turn recruited his wife and others – to organise fake addresses to mail the packages to.
The parcels were then redirected to family and friends of the husband-and-wife team, who have name suppression and who later gave evidence against Agwu at trial.
While playing for Metro FC, Agwu met Michael Byrne, who ran Mickey B Fitness in Ponsonby. The gym became a key distribution point and deals were carried out in the basement with large quantities sold on to couriers and middle men.
Byrne walked free from court in the middle of the 2013 trial after proving he was suffering from dementia and a degenerative brain disorder. He continued as a director of Mickey B Fitness until his death in November 2019.
Agwu’s co-accused Bert Jury, a former senior member of the King Cobras with a long criminal record, was tried alongside Agwu.
Jury was found guilty of five charges of supplying more than a kilogram of cocaine.
The network included Ponsonby cafe owner Jene Hayward, who claimed he was pressured into buying the drugs to pay a gang debt.
So far New Zealand’s prisons have remained virtually Covidfree, with one prisoner testing positive for the virus the day after they left jail.
Corrections national commissioner Rachel Leota said the prison service was ‘‘playing it safe’’ at level 2, and allowing a gradual return to normal for those serving time.
Leota said face-to-face visits with prisoners will resume for friends and family.
In-person legal visits and New Zealand Parole Board hearings are available, however Leota said they were encouraging the continued use of other options where possible.
‘‘Additional safety measures will be in place for all visitors to all sites, including increased hand hygiene measures, the use of thermal imaging cameras on entry, physical distancing and PPE (masks) to be worn by all people who will have face-to-face contact with prisoners.
‘‘We will also be reducing the total number of visitors able to attend each visit session to enable physical distancing, and individual prisons will be taking steps to ensure there is a fair and equitable process for allocating and managing all visits.’’