File photo. Photo: 123RF
A senior Mongrel Mob member who was leading a meth manufacturing and supply ring was busted trying to bring 1.1kg of the class A drug into New Zealand inside a set of golf clubs.
The meth had been shoved into the shafts of each of the clubs sent from the United Kingdom, but the package only made it as far as Germany before it was intercepted.
Huia Maxwell Edwards was "at the top of the hierarchy" of Mongrel Mob Aotearoa and responsible for the day-to-day organisation of his group for the manufacturing and commercial supply of meth around the Waikato in 2021.
On Friday, the 46-year-old appeared before Judge Glen Marshall in the Hamilton District Court for sentence.
He earlier admitted charges of supplying methamphetamine, manufacturing meth, conspiring to import meth, attempting to pervert the course of justice, participating in an organised criminal group, and conspiring to supply meth.
His criminal activity was discovered after police launched Operation Breaker and intercepted his communications between June and December 2021.
He supplied one of his "street-level dealers", Clayton Wilson, with about 530g of the drug. Wilson was jailed for four years in September last year.
Between August and September 2021, Edwards supplied a total of 1.5 ounces of meth on five occasions, along with other offers to supply ounces to Wilson and another co-offender.
He supplied six ounces to another female dealer and just over an ounce to another of his dealers.
Edwards instructed his meth maker to manufacture a further 10 ounces of the drug in September 2021 - during Covid - and asked that it be transported by truck.
The drug-stuffed golf clubs were discovered in the intercepted communications too after it was heard he was tracking an international courier parcel en route to New Zealand from the United Kingdom.
It had been delayed in Germany but what Edwards did not know was it had been busted by Customs, who discovered meth concealed in the shafts of each club, totalling 1.1kg.
The charge Edwards faced for attempting to pervert the course of justice related to a stolen Harley Davidson motorbike registered in the name of his family member but found in his possession.
Edwards got his gang associates - including Wilson - to force the victim into writing a declaration stating it had not been stolen and to withdraw his complaint.
The count of conspiring to supply meth followed an investigation by Gisborne police relating to patched Mongrel Mob Barbarian members and the supply of meth in the Wairoa area.
Intercepted comms revealed Edwards telling a co-offender that he had a kilogram of the drug available, however, Edwards was arrested before the transaction went through.
In court, Edwards' counsel, Tom Sutcliffe, pushed for several extra discounts including for good behaviour while on electronically monitored bail for the past 22 months, and his efforts during that time to kick-start his rehabilitation through the Grace Foundation.
"It's quite significant and it does reflect a deep commitment to changing his ways."
Sutcliffe likened Edwards' transformation between pre- and post-rehab to that of "night and day" given how much he had changed.
The organisation valued his contribution so much he had taken on a supervisory role helping others who were going through rehab.
"He has come to a point in his life where it's at a turning point," Sutcliffe said. "It's just sad that inevitably today a term of imprisonment would be imposed."
While the Crown pushed for a 40 percent minimum period of imprisonment, Sutcliffe argued against it, submitting Edwards' rehab efforts could be compromised the longer he was behind bars.
"That would be a negative step. The community is best served by this man's rehabilitative needs and his family's needs of simply being eligible for parole in the usual terms."
After taking a 13-year starting point, Judge Marshall gave 20 percent credit for his guilty plea, nine months for his time on electronic bail, and 20 percent combined for his rehabilitation efforts and background issues, coming to an end term of seven years' imprisonment.
The judge said that while he saw "some justification" for a minimum period of imprisonment, the jail term was a "reasonably lengthy and solid sentence".
"I am satisfied that the seven years that I have imposed is sufficient ... and will deter others."
After handing down the sentence, Judge Marshall urged Edwards to continue with the "great strides" he had taken so far with his rehabilitation.
"If you carry on along these lines then you will have an extremely productive life."
* This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.