Drug mule accepted $50K to smuggle cocaine into Northland

Alexander Steeve Yelengwe Yonkwa-Dingom has been jailed for 15 years for his role in importing cocaine into Paihia. Photo / John Stone

A Frenchman accepted $50,000 to help smuggle cocaine from a cruise ship into Northland so he could help his jailed brother and estranged sister.

Alexander Steeve Yelengwe Yonkwa-Dingom was sentenced by the High Court at Whangārei yesterday to 15 years in jail after he earlier accepted a sentence indication on three charges.

They were for possession of cocaine, importing cocaine and failing to carry out obligations in relation to a computer search.

Yonkwa-Dingom will have to serve seven years and six months' imprisonment before he's even eligible for parole.

In a letter to the court, Yonkwa-Dingom's mother pleaded that her son be allowed to serve his sentence in France as he didn't have any family support in New Zealand.

Justice Graham Lang said since Yonkwa-Dingom lived a sophisticated lifestyle and spoke reasonable English, serving his sentence in New Zealand would not be an isolating
experience.

The 28-year-old was part of a syndicate involved in smuggling cocaine from South America to Australia using cruise ship passengers as drug couriers.

He was arrested after police seized a backpack containing cocaine, with an estimated street value of between $6.8 million and $10.8m, at the Youth Hostel Association premises in Paihia in December 2017 and subsequently charged.

Cocaine seized by police from the Youth Hostel Association premises in Paihia Yonkwa-Dingom was renting. Photo / Tania Whyte

Justice Lang said Yonkwa-Dingom, who was born in Cameroon but spent most of his life in France, got into financial difficulty and also needed money to help his brother who was in jail.

He said Yonkwa-Dingom also wanted to help his sister, a mother-of-two, who had separated from her partner and decided to accept $50,000 to import cocaine into Australia.

However, the importation into Paihia was Plan B for the syndicate after its original scheme to get the drugs into Australia on a cruise ship was busted across the Tasman.

The cruise ship Regatta was due to travel from the US to South America, the Pacific and New Zealand and eventually their target country Australia.

Yonkwa-Dingom's role included flying to countries cocaine was destined to arrive in to prepare for the drug's arrival.

He flew to the US and began preparation for the operation before travelling to South America and on to French Polynesia.

Yonkwa-Dingom arrived in Australia on November 9, 2017, and two international money transfers enabled him to set up a Sydney apartment in preparation for the arrival of the
Regatta and another cruise ship the Astor.

However, Australian law enforcement authorities seized 25kg of cocaine from the four couriers on board the Astor and charged them with importing 25kg of cocaine into that country.

Their arrest and the perceived additional scrutiny from Australian authorities meant the original plan to smuggle cocaine off the Regatta and into Australia had to change.

A plan was then hatched to hand Yonkwa-Dingom the cocaine once the Regatta arrived into the Bay of Islands in early December 2017. Yonkwa-Dingom flew to New Zealand and booked a hostel and a hotel room in the Bay of Islands using different identities.

The two French nationals on board the cruise ship cleared Customs on arrival, looked for signs of trouble then returned to the ship and brought the cocaine to shore.

Regatta left for Auckland where a search by Customs of the cabin the two men occupied returned negative for controlled substances but there was a positive drug detector dog indication to a suitcase. However, they were unable to be charged and returned to France.

Police and Customs attention then turned to Yonkwa-Dingom.

Following two weeks of surveillance, both agencies identified where he was hiding the cocaine, executed a search warrant at the YHA premises in Paihia on December 20, 2017, and recovered a backpack containing the drug.

He had checked into the room using the name Richard Ngom.

Yonkwa-Dingom was arrested in Kerikeri and police located a number of items including a cellphone, an iPod, a laptop, rooms' keys, and newly bought backpacks.

He refused to provide police with the passcodes to access the "Silent Phone".

Justice Lang said quite clearly, Yonkwa-Dingom was more than a courier or a "catcher" of the cocaine after its arrival in New Zealand.

"He was the person tasked with setting up the apartment in Australia and was then required to travel to New Zealand to take possession of the cocaine after it was taken off the vessel.

"Where the final destination of the cocaine was to be is a matter of conjecture because it was clearly intended to be imported into Australia and only the events that occurred on 30, November 2017 changed that plan," he said.