Canterbury drug supplier jailed
File image. © Andrew Bardwell
The highest level link caught in a chain of drug dealing that brought the class A drug methamphetamine into Canterbury has been jailed for three years four months.
John David Blaikie, 53, was jailed when he appeared by video-link from the Auckland Court House for his sentencing in the Christchurch District Court today.
He had pleaded guilty to charges of supplying and attempting to supply methamphetamine. Two Ashburton co-offenders had earlier pleaded guilty. One received a term of home detention and the other – Raymond Donal Todd, 37 – was jailed for three years ten months on several drugs and other charges.
Defence counsel Serina Bailey said Blaikie had been caught with 40g of methamphetamine but there had been no sign of cash or transaction records. She suggested he had been dealing in the drug to finance his own drug habit.
Judge Raoul Neave said the Christchurch police had begun investigating the source of methamphetamine arriving in the city in April 2013. That inquiry led to Blaikie who was using a woman courier to transport the drugs or bringing it south himself.
It made no difference whether the motivation was cash or other drugs. He also noted that Blaikie had drawn others into the offending though they had been “pretty willing participants”.
Jailing Blaikie, Judge Neave noted that he had struggled while in custody and on bail to cope with a knee injury which had needed two operations. “The circumstances in which you received the injury confirm the circles in which you were moving,” he said.
Category: Focus
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