Two more people involved with the Comancheros motorcycle gang have been sentenced after police surveilled a failed million dollar drug deal and a money launderer funnelling stacks of cash through banks.
Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
A major raid on the gang in April last year - with more than 80 officers - netted nearly $4 million in houses and fancy cars and a host of criminal charges against a number of people
Over 18 months later five people have been sentenced, with three more still to be including the gang's New Zealand chapter president Pasilika Naufahu.
Connor Clausen was today jailed for his role intended to be as a drug "courier" for the gang.
Clausen was tasked by the Comancheros with swapping a suitcase with a million dollars of cash for a bunch of pseudoephedrine, a precursor to methamphetamine.
The deal was meant to go down on the side of the road in Takanini in Auckland in late 2018.
Clausen and the other party arrived at the pre-arranged spot but for reasons unknown, nothing changed hands.
Unfortunately for him and the others involved, the gang was being watched and followed by police, as the sentencing judge Justice Lang outlined.
"By this stage, the police had been able to obtain a warrant to allow them to install a listening device [in another car]... the police were therefore able to listen to conversations... they also had mobile surveilance installed so they could follow the van as it drove around," Justice Lang said.
Police turned up to the near-deal and filmed the whole thing. They had heard conversations about the drugs and the money and took images of Clausen meeting with the others involved.
After a four week jury trial, Clausen was found guilty of conspiring to supply the Class B drug.
His lawyer, Simon Lance, said Clausen's role was just this event with no further role or commercial interest in the drugs.
Justice Lang accepted this - that he was just a courier, or a runner.
"I also accept the submission of the Crown that this means you must have been a trusted member of the organisation from the vendors' perspective... you were trusted with a very large amount of money."
Lance said Clausen's early life was troubled, and submitted that this should be taken into account in sentencing.
"I also note... in the pre-sentence report about his cultural background and his early life, involving being removed from his family, living in institutions, those sorts of things which courts have taken into account in more recent times in providing some sort of discount for those factors that have led people down the paths they go down in later life," Lance said.
Following the failed deal, a pistol of Clausen's was found during a search, and then later while on bail, a shotgun and ammunition was found, which he pleaded guilty to. In total Clausen was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison.
Also sentenced was a woman found guilty of money laundering, who continues to have name suppression.
She deposited tens of thousands of dollars of cash at various bank branches into the account of a lawyer, Andrew Simpson, who has also been convicted of money laundering.
"In total the Crown can point to cash deposits totalling approximately $292,500 made by the three of you. Although you did not know it these sums were then paid out by Mr Simpson to assist in the purchase of luxury items for those further up in the scheme," Justice Lang said.
Justice Lang said the woman did not know the source of the money but was reckless in not questioning where the constant bundles of cash came from.
"You knew there was a risk that it came from such sources and nevertheless elected to carry on regardless of that risk."
He said the woman was suffering from mental health issues and was in a vulnerable position after a relationship breakdown and financial issues.
She was sentenced to 175 hours of community service.
Three others linked to the group - Comancheros vice-president Tyson Daniels, lawyer Andrew Simpson, and accountant Wiwini Hakaraia - have already been sentenced for various charges, including money and drug offending.
Three more are still to be sentenced, including gang president Pasilika Naufahu, who's been convicted of money, drug and organised crime charges.