A former detective has pleaded guilty to selling cannabis in Rarotonga. Photo / File
A former detective has pleaded guilty to selling cannabis in Rarotonga. Photo / File
A former Northland police officer has pleaded guilty to drugs charges in the Cook Islands.
Mark Franklin, 55, a former detective inspector who served in Northland, was arrested in Rarotonga in 2011, over allegations that he was operating as a local drug dealer, selling cannabis from a bar, in Rarotonga.
Franklin pleaded guilty in the Cook Islands High Court to two counts of selling a class C controlled drug, and one count of offering to sell a class C controlled drug.
Franklin was one of 13 people to face charges as a result of the police operation.
Franklin's co-accused included a senior police officer, Inano Matapo and her partner Giovanni Masters, who is the son of the country's deputy Prime Minister.
The Northern Advocate understands that one of Franklin's first professional forays to the Cook Islands was in 2004 when he completed a preliminary overview into an unsolved murder case in the Cook Islands.
Arorangi businessman Mark Chambers, 57, was found stabbed in his Cook Islands home in 1997. Franklin visited Rarotonga for three weeks to help set up support for local officers to resolve the case.
Franklin was the Northland crime services manager during his tenure in the region.
At that time he was in charge of all serious criminal investigations, drug enforcement teams, asset seizures, specialist squads and crime strategy. Franklin will be sentenced late next week.
