Two Wairarapa meth dealers busted during an undercover police operation have each been sentenced to more than two years in jail.
Geoffrey Owen Alistair Kingi, 55, and Jesse Kevin Brooks, 18, were respectively sentenced to jail terms of two years’ and three months and two years’ and one month yesterday, after previously pleading guilty to a raft of supply and possession for supply charges.
The pair were among a group of several people arrested after police raided houses across the region and seized thousands of dollars’ worth of drugs during an operation targeting meth and cannabis.
Brooks was initially approached by two female undercover police officers in late 2015, but sold them sugar.
But in February when another undercover officer, dubbed “Isaiah”, went to Brooks’ Masterton house and asked to buy a “dolly”, Brooks took some meth from a gram bag and sold him 0.1 of a gram for $100.
The officer returned on three more occasions and Brooks sold him meth every time, despite saying on the last occasion: “I still don’t know who sent you. Every time you come up I think it’s going to be my last sale.”
He then told the officer he did not normally sell drugs, saying he normally gave it out for free.
Judge Barbara Morris said she took into account Brooks’ long-standing alcohol and drug addictions, which dated back to an “extremely traumatic event” that took place when he was younger.
However, while he was “contemplating” quitting the drug, he had expressed no desire to cut out alcohol or cannabis, she said.
He had also racked up 32 other convictions since 2010, although none were for drugs.
An undercover officer visited Kingi’s Greytown home four times as part of the same operation, and each time was sold either a “point”, or 0.1-gram bag, or a 0.25-gram bag.
On the first visit, the officer saw seven bags, each believed to contain a gram of meth.
Kingi also offered to sell the officer a one-gram bag for $700 or $800, as well as cannabis.
Kingi had a long record of drug offending, with convictions dating back to 1991, Judge Morris said, but since being imprisoned on the most recent charges had shown a “real view” to rid himself of his addiction.
“[It’s] made you realise what a grip meth had on your life.”
The judge said while the respective jail terms were both outside the range of home detention, she would not have considered it as an option in either case, as a strong stance needed to be taken on selling the drug.
“There is no question, as you well know, that meth has a crushing effect on people and destroys lives and those of the families around them and drives them to other offending, so it is a drug that is very much of concern to the court and the community.”
In sentencing the two cases, Judge Morris said the fact that both were prepared to sell to “complete strangers” who turned up on their doorstep, must be taken into account.
“This is not simply a case where you were giving away to friends — it was a sale done to a person who arrived at your doorstep.”
Detective Senior Sergeant Barry Bysouth said the sentences were a great result for police and the community.
“Methamphetamine ruins lives.
“Not just for the people who are consuming the drug, but also for their family members.
“It’s an extremely addictive drug, and the cycle of addiction is extremely hard to break.
“That means the consumers require to buy the drug illicitly and this is an extremely expensive drug for a small amount.”
Police had a “range of strategies” available to target those supplying the drug.
“And we will use whatever means we have available to identify methamphetamine dealers and put them before the courts.”
Meth dealers jailed after sting
