Cocaine In The Post Allegations In Cartel-Linked Drugs To NZ, Cash To Mexico Case

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Stuff has obtained court documents that have shed new light on an alleged cocaine importation plot, including deliveries of the drug to suburban addresses and cash transfers to Mexican banks.

New details have emerged about an alleged Mexican Cartel-linked plan to import large quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine into New Zealand, including cocaine deliveries to suburban Rotorua addresses and cash transfers to Mexico.

Stuff has obtained the Crown Charge Notice for the nine men arrested as part of the National Organised Crime Group’s Operation Tarpon, which Acting Detective Inspector John Brunton said targeted key players in a Cartel-linked drug syndicate.

The men are Tangaroa Demant , James Dickson, Allison Dos Santos, Angel Gavito Alverado , Jeffrey Gear, Manual Moreno Gonzalez, Maurice Swinton, Tama Waitai and Ryan Walsh.

Swinton was employed at a stevedoring business contracted to the Port of Tauranga.

All pleaded not guilty to 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.

They are set to reappear for a call over at the High Court in Tauranga in June.

The Crown Charge Notice alleges that during 2020 and 2021 packages containing cocaine, one containing 300g of the drug, were sent to suburban properties in Rotorua.

A package containing 215g of methamphetamine was also alleged to have been sent.

Auckland addresses were also alleged to have received packages with 300g and 310g amounts of cocaine and one alleged to contain 215g of methamphetamine.

Members of the group are also alleged to have been in possession of a “container of liquid methamphetamine”.

Alverado is also alleged to have deposited $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”.

At the time of the men’s arrest in April last year, Brunton said it had been the result of an eight-month-long investigation involving more than 100 police and customs staff.

stuff