A key player in a multimillion-dollar drug syndicate run from London which smuggled hundreds of thousands of Ecstasy pills inside Harrods gift baskets has been given a lengthy prison sentence.
Matthew Frewer, a 38-year-old Englishman, pleaded guilty to three charges of supplying MDMA, a Class B drug.
Justice Geoffrey Venning today sentenced Frewer in the High Court at Auckland to eight years and nine months in prison, of which he will serve at least four years and three months.
Frewer was arrested as the principal wholesaler in the Ecstasy ring busted in July 2008 after police Operation Pave.
Tablets were hidden inside gift baskets from Harrods, the famous London department store, and posted to Auckland addresses rented under false names to cover the syndicate's tracks.
Once the gift baskets arrived, the illicit contents were delivered to Frewer, who arranged to meet with middlemen such as Nicholas Bowyer.
Bowyer was last week found guilty of the supply of Ecstasy, including selling tablets to Richard Allesio Rinaldi.
Rinaldi was also sentenced yesterday by Justice Venning after pleading guilty to one representative count of selling 3000 pills.
Home detention was declined and he was sentenced to two years and four months in prison.
Rinaldi and Bowyer both had high-flying careers with IBM and Microsoft before their arrests.
Another crucial link in the Ecstasy supply chain was someone who can only be called the Fisherman _ who pleaded guilty and gave evidence for the Crown.
The drug ring talked guardedly in code. "Cars", "car parts" or "wheels" referred to 1000 pills, while "invoices" or "paperwork" referred to payment for the drugs. Sometimes the drugs were described by the colour or the designs printed on the MDMA tablets, such as a cherry or iron cross.
The money poured in. On one occasion, Frewer sold 10,000 pills for $220,000. At that time, one Ecstasy pill sold for between $35 and $40 at street level. Frewer stashed the cash in a safety deposit box in the ASB vaults in downtown Auckland, which records show he visited 120 times over six months.
Police found US$240,000 ($375,000) and $100,000 in the vault, and receipts that showed $785,000 had been converted into US$502,000 and 30,000 ($65,700). However, Frewer was only paid for his work, he did not receive a share of the profits.
By then, millions of dollars were smuggled out of the country by syndicate members, often to Thailand, then back to London. One money courier, Periclis Antonio Pericli, was stopped at Auckland International Airport with nearly US$440,000 hidden in a suitcase. Another bag belonging to John Apostolakis contained US$150,000 and $480,000. The police first learned about Frewer in April 2008 after tailing Dean Keown, a convicted Christchurch drug dealer, who met him in Auckland.
Detectives began following Frewer and unravelled the syndicate by bugging the cellphones of suspects under surveillance.
Detective Sergeant Mike Beal, of the Auckland Metro drug squad, said the sophisticated Ecstasy ring was a "colourful cast of criminals" which had supplied the drug since 2004.
"These were people who had lots of opportunities in life, from backgrounds of privilege," he said. "They were well educated, well travelled, with a number of them in good employment. But drug dealing is all about the money."
