Three people busted by police as part of two major drug operations in Hawke's Bay last year were sent to prison on Tuesday when they appeared for sentencing in Napier District Court.
Shannon Rose Hislop, Dylan John Matthews and Jaydan Peter Wire were sentenced by Judge Bridget Mackintosh on a variety of charges including supplying methamphetamine and offering to supply methamphetamine.
The operations were overseen by head of the Eastern Districts Organised Crime Unit detective senior sergeant Mike Foster who said the sentences were the result of a lot of hard work put in by him and his team members.
He said there were about 30 police officers working on the operations at the time they were terminated and eight key team members who saw them right the way through.
In total there were seven people arrested as part of the first operation, which terminated in August 2012, and a further seven arrested at the conclusion of the second operation in October.
Police were allegedly able to identify the main source of methamphetamine coming into Hawke's Bay and passed his details onto police in the relevant area.
He was subsequently taken out of action and is now before the courts.
Mr Foster said seven ounces of the drug were seized across the two operations and thousands of dollars in cash.
A single ounce has a street value of about $14,000 meaning a total of $98,000 worth of methamphetamine was removed from the streets thanks to police intervention.
At the height of the drug dealing, police allege three or four ounces were being bought into Hawke's Bay every four days by members of the two syndicates.
Mr Foster said the people arrested had allegedly accumulated a good network of buyers in the Bay and were operating at a reasonably high level in terms of distribution of the drug.
Judge Mackintosh said the Eastern Districts Organised Crime Unit had investigated both Hislop and Matthews, two of the people jailed, in relation to drug offending and had monitored their communications.
She said they were both regular suppliers for a third person.
Hislop was stopped by police at a routine traffic stop on June 4 which revealed 11.6 grams of methamphetamine, a tick list and $514 in her vehicle.
She was released on bail but continued to offend.
Judge Mackintosh sentenced her to three years and nine months' imprisonment and said she was a sad case of the effect methamphetamine can have on a normal law abiding citizen.
Matthews was sentenced to three years and seven months by Judge Mackintosh, who said he was "deeply involved" in supply and the commercial aspect of dealing the drug.
Wire, the third person to be jailed, was part of the alleged second syndicate busted by police.
Judge Mackintosh said Wire was another example of a person involved in the terrible cycle of addiction and dealing.
"This cycle has terrible flow on effects through the community."
She said the sale of 70.5 grams of methamphetamine could be attributed to Wire and sentenced him to three years imprisonment for the offending.
