Five of the Westport drug dealers swept up in the net of the
police Operation Marvel investigation - one of the largest
drugs busts in the country - have been sentenced in Greymouth
District Court.
Four of them were sent to jail yesterday, including one of
the ring leaders, Bryan Murray Russell Anderson, who was
jailed for 3-1/2 years.
Others sentenced were Maria Dawn O'Brien, Bevan Patrick Te
Tai, Wayne Saunders and Natasha Peek.
Judge Michael Crosbie said all five were key players in a
sophisticated drugs operation, each having a role in the
harvesting, manicuring, grooming and packaging of the
cannabis, which had a street value of $7000 a kilogram.
"This was not a case of amateur growing or trading, it was
organised, substantial, insidious offending because once out
of your hands it was sold or bartered to those without
control, those who become dependent on this drug or graduate
to something worse," Judge Crosbie said.
The judge said dealers subjected misery on the families of
the people who got hooked on the drugs they sold, and that
misery was now about to be visited on the families of the
defendants.
Anderson faced nine charges involving the cultivation and
sale of cannabis or cannabis oil, sale of ecstasy and
possession of a sawn-off shotgun.
The judge did not believe him when he said the gun was for
"pest control" and that all the cannabis he was found with
(hundreds of plants) was for his own use.
O'Brien, 35, Anderson's partner, was jailed for two years and
three months after she admitted five charges.
Judge Crosbie said she acted as a courier, transporting the
cannabis clones and seedlings between growers, and selling
cannabis to associates.
Te Tai, 30, was sentenced to two years and nine months' jail
on five charges, including conspiring to cultivate or sell
the drug.
The judge said Te Tai's was a lesser involvement but crucial
to the operation.
Lawyer Doug Taffs said Te Tai was "only hired help" under the
strong will of others.
Saunders, 41, was sentenced to one year and 10 months' jail.
He had bought 3kg of cannabis off another member of the group
and was on-selling it.
Mr Taffs said Saunders ran a transport business employing
five people, and that business would have to fold if he went
to jail.
The judge said Saunders had been on the verge of a home
detention sentence, but 3kg was a considerable amount
changing hands for a significant sum (possibly $21,000), and
deserved a jail term.
Peek, 30, escaped jail on charges of conspiring to cultivate
and sell cannabis, and theft of electricity valued at
$13,000.
She had occupied the Brougham St house that the growers used
for their indoor operation.
The judge accepted that Peek had a "degree of naivety,
stupidity and desperation that did not exist in the others".
She was sentenced to 12 months' home detention and 240 hours'
community work.
