Juan Galicio Romero was sentenced in Wellington High Court. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
A man has been sentenced to more than six years in prison for importing class A drugs hidden in various objects, including the metal rods of a sausage grill and a wooden table.
Juan Galicio Romero, 27, born in Colombia, was one of 10 people arrested as part of Operation Bali, a police and Customs sting across Wellington, Hutt Valley and Hamilton in June 2022.
He pleaded guilty earlier this year to two charges - one for importing methamphetamine, and one for cocaine - and another charge for supplying drugs.
He appeared in the High Court at Wellington on Tuesday morning with the help of an interpreter.
His lawyer, Janine Bonifant, told Justice Helen McQueen her client was remorseful for the harm he had caused the community.
She said he had experienced pressure from his family, particularly his father.
She said the distressing details of his upbringing should give cause to discount his sentence, since he had been raised in an environment where he had experienced "the normalisation of the use of cocaine and criminal offending to address poverty".
Bonifant also argued his 3-year-old child would be harmed if Galicio Romero was to be incarcerated, and his partner would struggle to work and care for him alone.
She said since he was charged, he had gained an understanding of the harm drug dealing did to the community.
"He might well have been quite naive," she said.
When handing down her sentence, Justice McQueen said Galicio Romero had played an "essential part" in the operation, which took place between 2021 and 2022.
It saw more than 28 kilograms of methamphetamine and 5kg of cocaine seized, after being imported in packages addressed to various places, some concealed in a wooden table, and more in the metal rods of a sausage grill.
McQueen said Galicio Romero played a "leading role in the syndicate", and worked with a co-defendant to receive address details and then arrange for the drugs to imported.
However, she did apply discounts to a starting point of 12.5 years, including a 25 percent discount for pleading guilty, and further discounts for his upbringing, the harm to himself and his family should he be imprisoned, and remorse.
But she did uplift it by six months to account for previous similar offending involving class A drugs.
This had her arrive at a total sentence of six years and nine months, with no minimum period of imprisonment.
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