Jurors have returned guilty verdicts in the trial of a previously convicted drug trafficker accused of a new scheme exploiting a border security loophole at Auckland Airport and a baggage handler charged with helping him carry it out.
Nigel Iuvale, described by prosecutors as the kingpin of the syndicate, was found guilty of conspiracy to import methamphetamine, as was his co-accused, baggage handler, Tungane Manuel.
Manuel was found guilty of two charges of importing a little over 100kg of meth on two occasions in June and July 2021. Iuvale was found guilty of possessing methamphetamine for supply.
The jury of 10 men and two women indicated they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict for Iuvale’s conspiracy charge.
Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith allowed them to return a majority 11-1 verdict and they did so, with 11 finding Iuvale was guilty of the conspiracy beyond a reasonable doubt.
All other verdicts were unanimous.
Authorities said the kingpin Iuvale’s syndicate was at first spectacularly successful.
They estimated he arranged and oversaw the importation of hundreds of kilograms of methamphetamine in 2021 and had plans afoot to import hundreds of kilos more, with a street value in the tens of millions of dollars.
Numerous airport workers have pleaded guilty to being involved in scheme.
It involved diverting bags from incoming flights from Los Angeles and Malaysia before baggage went through Customs screening areas.
In light of the guilty pleas, jurors in the High Court at Auckland were told over the course of the three-week trial that they could consider the importation scheme to be a proven fact.
The main question they are tasked with answering is whether Iuvale and co-accused Tungane Manuel were involved in the scheme. Both are adamant they were not involved.
The jury retired on Friday evening after several hours of deliberations and returned Monday morning, when they watched Manuel’s police interview again.
Several members of the jury took notes as they re-watched the interview and reviewed the evidential material they were provided.
Iuvale’s lawyer Marie Taylor-Cyphers suggested repeatedly during her closing address on Friday that it was a case of mistaken identity on the part of investigators, who might have thought they were tracking her client when they were actually observing his twin brother.
She also cast suspicion on an airport worker with name suppression who has pleaded guilty to organising the baggage handlers. He is the more likely kingpin, she argued.
Prosecutors said the worker acted as a trusted middle-man for Iuvale, who had the necessary overseas drug connections but did not work at the airport.
“Not a single witness has told you Mr Nigel Iuvale made an agreement with anyone to import methamphetamine,” Taylor-Cyphers said, describing Operation Selena - the undercover investigation that led to her client’s arrest - as a culmination of flawed assumptions by police.
“There is no direct evidence he was involved. There’s no photos of him with drugs or money. There are no text messages ... saying, ‘Hey, it’s Nigel, drop the stuff off here.’
" ... The Crown case is one big inference - one big guessing game. [It’s] a great story, to be sure, but not one supported by evidence.”
Prosecutor Matthew Nathan acknowledged the Crown case against Iuvale was based on circumstantial evidence.
But when the many threads of circumstantial evidence are drawn together the result was a convincing case, he said.
Using the handle “L1nkag3″ on encrypted app Wickr, Iuvale gave instructions for a test run of the importation scheme in early 2021, Nathan said.
He argued jurors could be sure it was Iuvale because the account was found to have photos of him with his partner and children. While not charged for the test run, it shows a pattern of supervising drug imports, he argued.
Nathan also noted that Iuvale was found guilty in Auckland District Court earlier this year alongside his brother of possession of methamphetamine for supply.
The convictions came after authorities uncovered an importation scheme at Port of Auckland occurring around the same time as the Auckland Airport scheme. Jurors might find that to also indicate a pattern, he said.
Immediately after a July 12 airport import from Los Angeles, a person using the handle “L1nk3d″ on encrypted app Threema was giving people orders about what to do with the drugs - including dropping them off on a street where Iuvale’s parents lived.
That handle - similar to “L1nkag3″ on Wickr - also belonged to Iuvale, it was alleged.
“Nigel Iuvale, L1nkag3, L1nk3d was a person who was cautious, who understood the importance of security,” Nathan told jurors, suggesting the defendant was savvy enough to either use encrypted apps to give orders or meet face-to-face.
But unfortunately for him, he was surrounded by people who weren’t so smart, which was how police built a case against him, Nathan said.
The prosecutor recited a saying he said his grandfather would often repeat: “It’s hard to soar like an eagle when you’re surrounded by turkeys.”
As for co-defendant Manuel, described as a lower-level syndicate member who didn’t have any direct communication with Iuvale, he made a strong case for his own guilt in the interview he gave to a police officer, the Crown said.
Nathan described the voluntary interview as a “spectacularly unsuccessful” effort to minimise his role.
“So what I do is just ... confirm if it’s coming today, like that,” Manuel said when asked about one of the flights that contained drugs. “I don’t know anything else ... I’m just saying which gate ... it’s gonna go to.”
Manuel admitted getting money “just for watching out” but insisted the payment was $20,000 instead of the $26,000 that was suggested by the detective interviewing him.
The detective asked Manuel directly if he knew why it was he was asked to “watch out”.
“Um, not really, but I’ve got a fair idea, yeah,” he responded.
He insisted he didn’t know what box the drugs came in. The Crown said he didn’t need to know that information to be part of a syndicate, as long as he was helping in other ways.
“I’m offloading [the aeroplane], but I don’t pick out. I don’t know,” Manuel explained. “So I am just doing my normal job. I am just a lookout. A watcher. See they, they just ring me like to confirm ...
“I’m just watching out like if the boys gonna be suspicious or something.”
Prosecutors suggested that both defendants also seemed to know about a drug shipment that was seized by Malaysian authorities well before police in New Zealand were aware of it.
Manuel chose to represent himself at trial, but he allowed standby lawyer Nick Leader to deliver a closing address on his behalf.
Leader suggested there was a major breakdown in communication during the interview, noting that his client speaks with a heavy accent and would have been quite nervous, having never been in trouble with the law before.
Manuel may have known that things looked “dodgy” but he only wanted to do his job, Leader said, reminding jurors of something else the defendant told police in the interview:
“I told them I didn’t want to be involved. I told them ‘one day you will get caught’.”
Telling others what gate a plane was at couldn’t be seen as assisting a drug import when it was information made readily available on flight arrival boards throughout the airport, Leader said.
Manuel only thought of the large cash payment as “free money”, he said.
Even if Manuel did unwittingly help with the importation of the drugs, he never intended to help and so can’t be found guilty, Leader argued.
The pair will be sentenced on September 13.
