Ninety Mile Beach drug bust: Jonah Lomu’s ‘niece’, Selaima​ Fakaosilea, loses Supreme Court appeal

Selaima Fakaosilea during sentencing in the High Court at Whangārei in 2019. Photo / Mike Scott

New Zealand’s highest court has ruled Selaima Fakaosilea – a close relative of Jonah Lomu - can no longer appeal the sentences she received for her involvement in the Ninety Mile Beach meth importation.

A jury found Fakaosilea guilty in 2019 of importing methamphetamine and participating in an organised criminal gang following a major drug bust by police in 2016.

She was sentenced to 12-and-a-half years’ imprisonment. This was added to a 2018 sentence of 14-and-a-half years in prison for two charges of supplying meth and one of supplying cocaine for which she had pled guilty.

In June of that year, officers found more than 500kg of methamphetamine in a rented caravan and buried in sand dunes at Ninety Mile Beach (Te One-roa-a-Tōhē). At the time, the discovery was hailed as the largest drug bust the country had seen.

The campervan that allegedly contained the bulk of the methamphetamine. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Since then, the story of the foiled scheme has been transported to New Zealand screens through the comedy-drama Far North which is currently showing on Three and ThreeNow.

Fakaosilea, who has always maintained her innocence, has tried three times to reduce her 12-and-a-half-year jail sentence. The first was in the Court of Appeal followed by the Supreme Court twice.

In 2021, Fakaosilea appealed the conviction and sentence for the Ninety Mile Beach meth importation case at the Court of Appeal. Her sentence was reduced by three years.

But in 2022, the Supreme Court dismissed Fakaosilea’s application for a second appeal against the 2019 conviction and sentence. However, the opportunity for another sentence appeal remained on the table because of an impending judgment on an appeal by William Allan Berkland, who was convicted of helping a Wellington drug operation.

Berkland had been sentenced to 13 years and three months’ imprisonment for his role assisting the lead of a meth operation being run out of a Wellington home. However, the Supreme Court reduced his sentence to eight years and eight months in jail because of his lesser role in the operation.

In view of this, Fakaosilea applied for leave to appeal against the two sentences imposed in 2018 and 2019.

However, the highest court in New Zealand released a judgment on Wednesday in which Supreme Court Justices Susan Glazebrook, Joe Williams and Stephen Kós ruled there were no inconsistencies in the sentencing.

They noted a discount of four years had been applied to Fakaosilea’s 2019 sentence because of background factors.

The judges said they were not satisfied there was any risk of a substantial miscarriage of justice in either case.

Fakaosilea’s brother, Ulakai Fakaosilea, was one of seven other people also convicted over the Ninety Mile Beach meth importation. He pleaded guilty and received 22 years and nine months in jail.