Comancheros Operation Nova: Connor Clausen jailed for three years and eight months

Connor Clausen during the first day of the Comancheros Operation Nova trial at the Auckland High Court. Photo / Brett Phibbs

A drug runner trusted by the Comancheros and found guilty of conspiring to supply pseudoephedrine has been jailed for three years and eight months.

After a lengthy and high-profile trial, Connor Clausen was found guilty of conspiring to supply the Class B drug pseudoephedrine in September 2018.

The president of the Comancheros chapter in New Zealand, Pasilika Naufahu, was also found guilty by the jury as a co-offender.

The offending was filmed by covert police capturing Clausen for two minutes and 19 seconds.

"Mr Clausen's role was confined to what we see in the surveillance," defence lawyer Simon Lance said.

"He was the passenger in that car. He wasn't carrying any weapons."

There was no evidence or suggestion Clausen was being paid or had a future role involving drugs, he said.

"His role was very much fleeting."

Justice Graham Lang said while Clausen's "culpability falls well below" that of He Sha, he had acted as a courier or runner.

"You had no proprietary interest in the drugs."

Rather Clausen was acting on orders from higher up, he said, and was in a position of trust.

Clausen had earlier pleaded guilty to two charges involving the unlawful possession of firearms.

In sentencing Clausen today, Justice Lang acknowledged that his deportation from Australia had stranded him in New Zealand with little support.

Clausen was "inevitably driven to the Comancheros organisation to find friendship and fellowship".

Pasilika Naufahu, Comanchero MC president, pictured during the first day of his trial. Photo / Brett Phibbs

He was arrested as a part of a covert police investigation that targeted the activities of the Comanchero Motorcycle Club, code-named Operation Nova.

More than 80 police officers were involved in the raids, which led to about $4m of assets being seized, including several luxury vehicles such as a Rolls-Royce Wraith and gold-plated Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

A woman, who has name suppression, was today sentenced to 175 hours community work for one representative charge of money laundering.

She and the key money handler in the case had visited South Auckland banks depositing cash that would be used to buy luxury items for others.

Justice Lang said at the forefront of planning the scheme was a solicitor, Andrew Simpson.

The then lawyer had directed the money handler that sums were to be deposited in sums under $10,000, he said.

"This was clearly done so the attention of the authorities would not be drawn to the deposits," Justice Lang said.

Then lawyer Andrew Simpson helped the gang. Photo / Sam Hurley

The High Court judge acknowledged the woman was "particularly vulnerable" and "financially stretched" at the time.

But the aggravating features of the offending included that she was personally involved on four dates involving multiple transactions, he said.

The woman and the main money handler had also shared a joke about whether the money could be coming from a gang like the Comancheros, the court heard.

"This shows you did turn your mind to the source of the cash," Justice Lang said.

However, the woman was sentenced on the basis she was reckless as to the source of the cash - which had been accepted by the Crown.

Last month, Justice Lang sentenced senior Comancheros gang member Jarome Fonua to four and half years in jail for his role.

Fonua, the club's secretary, had pleaded guilty to participating in an organised criminal group and money laundering.

He had been trusted with cash, $60,000 of which was used as part of the deposit for Naufahu's Bucklands Beach home.

Fonua gave this sum to the money handler, who then banked amounts of less than $10,000 in Simpson's trust account.