During a police drugs operation targeting him, a Pukerau man was in possession of or sold 1318 caps of cannabis oil and 169 ounces of cannabis, Crown counsel Richard Smith said at sentencing in the Dunedin District Court yesterday.
The estimated value of the drugs was about $52,000 for the cannabis oil and about $59,000 for the cannabis, Judge Stephen O'Driscoll was told.
Lionel Paul Joseph Taumata (52), shearer, had admitted 14 indictably laid drug charges - possessing the class B drug cannabis oil for supply, supplying cannabis oil (five charges) and producing cannabis oil (two charges); and possessing cannabis for supply, selling cannabis (four charges) and conspiring to supply cannabis, the offending having occurred in Gore, Taumarunui, Invercargill and Dunedin on various dates between May 5 and December 11 last year.
The cannabis oil offending brought four years and eight months' jail, and the cannabis offending 12 months' jail (concurrent).
As requested by the Crown, there were also orders forfeiting a Ford Falcon utility vehicle being driven by Taumata when he was stopped by police in Dunedin on December 11, and $2600 he had with him at the time.
The police summary said, as a result of an increase in the availability of cannabis and cannabis oil in Otago and Southland, police began an operation targeting Taumata. From the middle of last year, evidence showed Taumata was regularly travelling to the North Island, where he would buy large amounts of cannabis and cannabis oil to distribute, and large quantities of cannabis to make cannabis oil.
On one occasion, Taumata brought back from the North Island about four pounds of cannabis, all of which he sold within a day of returning. In another instance he went to Invercargill and bought 20 litres of a solvent used in the production of cannabis oil.
That night, he used the solvent and up to 10 pounds of cannabis to make 240 caps of cannabis oil. He sold all the caps the next day. Between October 17 and November 11, Taumata met one associate at least six times and sold at least six ounces of cannabis and 15 caps of cannabis oil.
He also regularly sold bulk amounts of cannabis to another associate. They would regularly communicate and arrange to make exchanges. Stopped in Dunedin returning from the North Island on December 11 and found to have 32 individual ounces of cannabis in his vehicle, Taumata stated he had bought the cannabis and was bringing it back to sell. Taumata also had 423 caps of cannabis oil and $2600 cash.
He admitted having made a large amount of cannabis oil while in the North Island and having made up the caps to sell when he got back to Pukerau. He was trying to make some money for his family, as he believed he was in poor health, he said.
From a starting point of six years' jail, the judge added six months on account of recent offending (possessing cannabis oil for supply in 2010). He then reduced the term to four years and eight months for Taumata's co-operation and degree of candour in his admissions.
