By TONY STICKLEY
An alleged plot to smuggle $800,000 of cocaine into New Zealand fell apart when the courier gambled away much of the money needed to buy the drugs.
Details of the fiasco emerged yesterday in the High Court at Auckland where a 20-year-old foreign national was applying for bail.
The man,
the son of a wealthy industrialist and former international soccer player, has continuing name suppression from the district court.
Justice Salmon reserved his decision on the bail application.
The Crown says the man was the financier and linchpin of a conspiracy to import a large amount of cocaine from Canada.
However, things went awry when the courier lost at the casino a big part of the $200,000 set aside to buy the cocaine.
Peter Williams, QC, appearing for the defence with Auckland lawyer Chris Reid, said his client, who had come to New Zealand to complete his education, had "fallen in with thieves."
He had given them money for what he thought were legitimate business ventures.
But they played him for a "sucker and a dupe."
Mr Williams said his client had no involvement with the courier who went to Canada, supposedly to buy cocaine.
No drugs were bought because of the courier's poor luck at the casino tables. "It was a complete fiasco," said Mr Williams.
Brian Dickey, for the Crown, said that the man was the kingpin of the operation.
He had received about $200,000 from abroad and had allegedly arranged to import cocaine with a street value of more than $800,000.
