Judge finds that man imported 6kg of cocaine

A judge has ruled that a Christchurch man imported 6kg of the class A drug cocaine into New Zealand.

Lee Dixon, a 34-year-old air conditioning engineer, now faces sentencing in the High Court for the drug importation.

He has admitted importing and supplying the class A drug cocaine, and refusing to provide police with a password under the Search and Surveillance Act.

But after indicating guilty pleas, Dixon disputed the amount of the drug involved and a hearing was held before Justice Nicholas Davidson in the High Court last year to determine the amount.

The Crown also wants orders for the destruction of cell phones, scales, and containers used to buy and sell the cocaine, and the forfeiture of $10,000 in American dollars that was seized from Dixon.

Those orders won’t be considered until the sentencing for which a date is still to be set. Dixon remains in custody in the meantime.

Dixon returned from a trip to South America on March 29, 2014. He was searched at Auckland Airport and found with 97.5g of cocaine packed in a condom, inside his boxer shorts. He was convicted on a charge of importing cocaine and in April 2015 was sentenced to seven months’ home detention and 150 hours of community work.

However, this case concerns his further importation of cocaine between late 2014 and mid-2015.

Dixon admits what while he was in South America he made contacts with people involved in the cocaine trade in Colombia. Justice Davidson said Dixon had now pleaded guilty to various charges including importation of cocaine but not the quantity alleged by the Crown.

The judge said: “A striking feature of this case is that apart from the cocaine identified in the supply charges, none of the cocaine alleged to have been imported by Mr Dixon has been located by the police.”

Through his defence counsel, Michael Starling, Dixon admitted importing between 50g and 100g of cocaine for personal use. Mr Starling said it was all the Crown could prove.

The hearing included evidence from the Organised Financial Crime Agency New Zealand, and a supervisory special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration (the DEA) in Tokyo, giving expert testimony about the cocaine trade and inferences from the transactions and communication in which Dixon was involved.

The Crown said that the evidence proved beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant sent US dollars $109,797 out of New Zealand to pay for cocaine purchased in Colombia, which was imported into New Zealand. Most involved monetary transactions through Western Union.

Dixon also handed over US dollars $70,000 to an undercover constable in Hagley Park, Christchurch on 16 March, 2015, after the police became aware that he wanted a large amount of cash uplifted and sent to an overseas destination.   The Crown alleges it was to pay for cocaine in Colombia.

The Crown alleges cocaine was brought into New Zealand in a 10kg package labelled as a “submersible pump” on June 15, 2015, which was sent by FedEx from Venezuela and delivered to Rakaia.

The Crown says communications indicate that the package contained cocaine, but the original package was never found. Judge Davidson said no conclusion beyond reasonable doubt about the contents could be reached, but it was “a highly suspicious transaction which probably involved the importation of cocaine into New Zealand”.

The evidence about the delivery came to light a year after Dixon’s arrest.

When a search warrant was executed, Dixon refused to give the police the pass code or access code for electronic gear. When stopped in his vehicle, US dollars $4000 cash was found in the centre console and at an associate’s address a safe belonging to Dixon was found containing cash of US dollars $6000, a set of electronic scales and a money exchange receipt.

The scales were found to bear cocaine residue. There were some rather desperately worded messages sent to the defendant at about the time of his arrest which were not answered by him.

Dixon was arrested on July 2, 2015. He said he entered into the currency transactions because he was investing in US currency, and that he sent money via Western Union to South America for friends who were travelling there. He could not remember meeting anyone in Hagley Park (the undercover officer) and handing over US dollars $70,000 on March 16, 2015. He also said he had nothing to do with cocaine since he was arrested at Auckland Airport in 2014, and he had no knowledge of cocaine-related activity in Christchurch.

The judge accepted that a total of US dollars $109,797 sent by Dixon allowed a conservative estimate to be made that at least 6 kilograms of cocaine was imported into New Zealand by him.

Tags: class A drug, cocaine, Colombia, importation

Category: Focus