Parker travel alert removed as police sought warrant over drugs inquiry
Customs removed a flag on boxer Joseph Parker’s international travel file allowing him to leave the country, before police were able to execute a search warrant over allegations he was linked to an international drugs ring, police documents reveal.
Parker’s name was repeatedly mentioned at the 2019 High Court trial of three men later jailed for their part in an international drug syndicate.
In 2018, as detectives were preparing their case against the trio, they were also investigating whether the former world heavyweight champion was involved in buying and supplying cocaine.
Detectives were granted a search warrant on Parker’s property but they failed to execute it, and he was never charged. Parker denied on oath any involvement with the importation of drugs and through his lawyer described the allegations against him as unfounded.
A copy of the search warrant is among a bundle of documents released to Stuff under the Official Information Act.
It shows a detective applied for the warrant on Parker on June 5, 2018. It was approved by a judge on the same day but had to be used within two weeks.
Detectives sought the warrant because they wanted to find Parker’s cell phone and search it for any communication between him and members of the syndicate. The document bundle also included a police ‘‘job sheet’’ that states ‘‘search warrant applied for however not executed due to Mr Parker travelling overseas the previous night’’. The date attributed to that statement is June 14, 2018.
A third police document raises questions about how Parker was able to step foot on that flight.
Pages from a police notebook belonging to Detective Nathan Bland, who applied for the Parker warrant, show that at noon he recorded: ‘‘Search warrant JP. authorised by Justice Bouchier’’.
Bland’s entry is undated, but based on it citing the warrant being approved, it appears to be June 5, 2018.
At the same time, Bland wrote down: ‘‘Emailed NZ Customs re JP ticketing’’.
An hour later, Bland then added: ‘‘Advised that Customs took the ticketing alert off so a noone was digging around [sic]. Police not advised of this.’’
The documents do not explain why the alert had been placed on Parker but documents on Customs’ website shows border alerts can relate to police investigations
and other Government departments, such as the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health.
In a covering letter with the released documents, Detective Inspector Scott Beard said once Parker had travelled overseas, there was no prospect of finding his cell phone. ‘‘Police could not execute a search warrant in good faith because the item sought was not going to be there. Mr Parker did not return within 14 days and the search warrant expired,’’ Beard said.
There is no evidence in the documents a subsequent search warrant was ever applied for on Parker’s return to New Zealand.
The operation, code-named Operation Disciplinia, was a joint investigation by Auckland police’s organised crime unit and Customs. It had made three arrests – Tevita Fangupo, Tevita Kulu and Toni Finau – the trio were later convicted for various roles in importing and selling methamphetamine.
In the warrant application, Bland said he believed Parker was a ‘‘close associate’’ of Fangupo and Finau.
He also said that by November 2017, Customs officers in the US and New Zealand had intercepted 10 packages being sent to Auckland addresses, containing a total of over 20kg of methamphetamine and 27g of cocaine. Intercepted phone conversations between Finau and an ‘‘unknown person’’ using a phone number believed to be connected to Parker were included in the warrant application. The phone number was redacted by the police in the OIA response to Stuff.
Detectives seized Finau’s phone when he was arrested in January 2018.
Bland’s warrant application says police had found evidence of a conversation on private messaging service Wickr between Finau and another person with the username ‘joeboxerparker’.
‘‘As a result of a search warrant executed at the address of
Toni Finau, conversations between Joseph Parker and Toni Finau were recovered detailing Joseph Parker’s involvement assisting Toni Finau with contacts for illicit drugs and the purchasing of illicit drugs.’’
Bland’s police notebook entries also show police agreed with Parker’s lawyers to hold off approaching the boxer for 10 days until after his fight against Alexander Flores on December 15, 2018. On January 12, 2019 police approached Parker through his lawyer, Michael Heron QC, the former Solicitor General.
By email, Bland told Heron police wanted to talk to Parker about the importation and supply of Class A drugs.
‘‘We have not predetermined any potential outcome in relation to this aspect of our enquiry, no decisions have been made regarding whether any charges will be laid,’’ the email says.
On April 8, four months later, Heron advised Bland that Parker would be exercising his right to silence.