A man who moved $20,000 around for an overseas syndicate in an alleged Mexican cartel-linked drug smuggling plot has been jailed for three years and eight months.
Angel Gavito Alverado is one several men charged in relation to an alleged plot to get drugs, including 200kg of cocaine, into New Zealand through the Port of Tauranga.
The 28-year-old was sentenced at the High Court in Rotorua on Friday after earlier pleading guilty to charges of money laundering, possession of methamphetamine for supply and conspiracy to import methamphetamine.
Crown prosecutor Joanna Lee said Alverado came from a 'somewhat privileged, middle class upbringing” and that he would be deported back to Mexico after his sentence.
Justice Graham Lang said Alverado emigrated to New Zealand following in the footsteps of his brother, and found work here panel beating.
He said he ended up 'renting a house he couldn't afford”, which in turn 'led you to become involved in the laundering of cash for the syndicate in Mexico”.
'You undertook these activities for financial gain,” he said.
The alleged Mexican cartel-linked plot included smuggling drugs into New Zealand through the Port of Tauranga. Photo: Christel Yardley/Stuff.
His co-defendants have all pleaded not guilty.
They face a raft of charges including conspiracy to import cocaine, importing cocaine, money laundering, possession of cocaine for supply, conspiracy to import methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine for supply, conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine, unlawful possession of a firearm and cultivating cannabis.
Some charges carry a maximum penalty life imprisonment, and some alleged offending stretches back to 2020.
Stuff had earlier obtained court documents that shed new light on the alleged cocaine importation plot, including deliveries of the drug to suburban addresses and Alverado's cash transfer to a Mexican bank.
Alverado's money laundering charge related to him depositing $20,600 into a bank account in New Zealand on January 14 last year, six days later transferring $19,676 'to a bank account in Mexico”.
The Crown Charge Notice alleges that during 2020 and 2021 packages containing cocaine, one containing 300g of the drug, were sent to suburban Rotorua properties.
2 comments
Taxpayer savings?!
Posted on 14-11-2022 11:35 | By Lyrch
Can’t we spend taxpayers dollars on a one way ticket out of here?! Let’s just deport him now and save the NZ taxpayer 200k to 300k…
Penalties for Drug smuggling too soft
Posted on 14-11-2022 15:59 | By oceans
New Zealand need to take a harder line on drugs. If that consignment had got through many new people would have become addicted . We need laws like Singapore with a ZERO tolerance to drugs. New Zealand also need to vet carefully young people wanting to immigrate from South American Countries particularly. I may be hard but with the amount of drugs he was trying to import we should have had the death penalty.
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