Cops spy before drugs pounce

Aussie jailed for supplying meth after raid yields $1.5m

Police officers watched a methamphetamine supplier in action for more than a week via a covert camera installed at his storage unit before they pounced — catching him with $1.5 million in drug money.

Brian Paul Cutler was jailed on Friday in the High Court at Auckland and details of his offending and how police discovered it were outlined for the first time.

Cutler, a 47-year-old Australian, had earlier admitted five charges relating to possessing and supplying what the court described as “relatively large” quantities of meth.

He is the first person to be sentenced since the release of a Court of Appeal decision which set new guidelines around sentencing for methamphetamine dealing.

The landmark decision means meth dealers who can prove their own addiction caused their drug offending could have their sentences cut by 30 per cent. But Justice Ian Gault said Cutler was not significantly affected by addiction and the ruling had little bearing on his case.

He said Cutler arrived in New Zealand from Australia in September 2017 and within two months he had became a “person of interest” to the National Organised Crime Group and Customs.

Throughout December 2017 and early January last year, Customs examined a lot of courier consignments originating from Malaysia addressed to different business entities at a factory unit Cutler rented and lived in. The consignments did not contain meth.

But Customs later intercepted four similar packages addressed to Cutler, each containing about 2.5kg of meth.

On January 23 last year police and Customs executed a covert search warrant at a different storage unit in Henderson Cutler had hired.

They found the first consignment, which had not been opened, and seven empty cylinders or engine parts.

“Police installed a covert camera in the corridor of the storage facility,” said the judge.

On February 8 police executed a further covert search warrant at Cutler’s storage unit and discovered all four packages were missing.

“In their place were bags

Police installed a covert camera in the corridor of the storage facility.

Justice Ian Gault

containing approximately $1.15 million in cash,” the judge said.

The court heard that Cutler spent most of his career working on oil rigs in Australia and NZ and earned “good money” but he lost his job in 2015 after failing a drug test.

Cutler said he got involved with the drug supply when he first arrived in New Zealand. He said unspecified people approached him, telling him “he had to do this” and he went along with it, fearing reprisal for his family in Australia.

He said he never opened the packages and did not know what was inside them.

But Justice Gault said Cutler “must have had some awareness of the scale of the operation” given he handled a significant amount of cash.

“One does not secrete rice in cylinders or engine parts, nor receive $1.15 million for this quantity of rice.”

Cutler admitted he was a “functioning drug user”. The court heard he started using at the age of 14 and has tried everything except heroin.

Justice Gault accepted Cutler was “genuinely remorseful for his offending” but while Cutler had been a drug user, there was no evidence that addiction played a significant role in this offending.

He sentenced Cutler to seven years and two months in prison on all charges.