Drug mastermind gets 11 years

Gary Read smuggled precursor drugs from Thailand to NZ. Photo / Alan Gibson

From the outside, Gary Read appeared to have it all. A successful businessman who imported party pills and herbal supplements, the 45-year-old lived the high life with a $1.5 million mansion in Thailand, a personal art collection worth $100,000 and plenty of cash, cars and women.

But in secret, Read was in control of a substantial illegal importation and distribution enterprise, through which he smuggled precursor drugs from Thailand to cook up millions of dollars worth of P in New Zealand.

So clever was his operation that family and friends unwittingly acted as "catchers" of 70 packages of pseudoephedrine, the vital ingredient used to make methamphetamine.

Crushed and made into paste, the drugs were disguised in cosmetic jars and mailed in a "scattergun" approach all over the upper North Island to people who thought Read was only trying to evade customs tax.

They included his daughter and brother, who were both dragged down with Read when his dealings made him the target of a joint investigation between the Organised and Financial Crime Agency of New Zealand, Tauranga police and Customs.

During Read's two-year operation, which began in July 2009, the drugs, with an estimated street value of at least $8.7 million, were sold to gangs and given to cooks and associates to deal.

Yesterday in the High Court at Hamilton, Justice Kit Toogood sentenced Read to 11 years' jail with a minimum non-parole period of five years and three months for masterminding the large-scale, sophisticated and "cunning" operation.

The court heard how Read's obsession with producing health products to revive his youthful look led him to Thailand.

"You freely admitted to importing pseudoephedrine but you qualified that by saying it was an attempt to produce health-enhancing products," Justice Toogood said.

"Given the use of pseudoephedrine to produce a large quantity of the most evil and destructive drug now available in New Zealand, I do not accept that explanation."

Justice Toogood took into consideration Read's model behaviour in prison, where he co-manages the bakery and has undertaken NCEA study, but said the sentence needed to be a deterrent.

Co-accused Jade Brady was sentenced to two years and two months in prison for supplying the methamphetamine.

Read's daughter Kahsharn Read, 26, pleaded guilty to nine counts of importing up to 1.86kg of pure pseudoephedrine, which had a potential street value of $1.1 million when converted to P.

She was sentenced to nine months' home detention.