Drug import go-between narrowly escapes jail

A man who acted as a go-between in a $50,000 Central Otago drug import has dodged a prison term "by a hair's breadth''.

Devon Gregory Mathieson (22) - metal molder, of Cromwell - appeared before the Dunedin District Court yesterday after pleading guilty to conspiring to supply the class-B drug MDMA.

The defendant's best friend had asked him to pick up a package he was having sent to a Clyde holiday home.

Though Mathieson said he did not know what he was fetching he told police he assumed it was MDMA or ecstasy.

He was right.

But when he turned up to the assigned crib, the police had got there before him and intercepted the package.

Mathieson checked two further addresses on October 26 suggested to him by his mate but came up empty before returning to the first house 20 minutes later.

He asked a woman who was staying there whether she had received a parcel for his uncle.

Then police swooped in.

Analysis of the envelope, which had been sent from Poland and labelled as a beauty product, found 125gm of the granulated class-B substance.

Judge Kevin Phillips said it equated to a street value of up to $52,000.

``There's a lot of money at issue here,'' he said.

Mathieson had been offered $2000 to pick up the parcel but claimed it was his misguided loyalty to his friend that had driven him.

``You're 21, mature and capable of making your own decisions about your life,'' the judge said.

He believed the man had done it for money.

``Your role overall was limited as a go-between,'' Judge Phillips said.

And he accepted it was only in relation to one of four packages sent to New Zealand.

Had Mathieson been more heavily involved in the operation, he would have been heading to prison, the judge said.

Defence counsel Fiona Guy Kidd said her client's mother had flown in from Australia for yesterday's sentencing, as well as his father travelling over from the West Coast.

``They should've been around when he was actually doing this,'' Judge Phillips said.

While he questioned the defendant's remorse, he acknowledged he had given up his Facebook password so police could peruse his conversations with the co-defendant.

 

 

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