Auckland petrol station shooter caught smuggling drugs into Pāremoremo prison

An Auckland man behind bars for shooting a stranger in the head at a petrol station has had six months added to his sentence after a clumsy attempt to smuggle cocaine and other drugs into Pāremoremo prison.

Prison CCTV caught 24-year-old Russell Falani Junior Toleafoa in the act in May 2024 as the drugs were exchanged during a visit by three associates.

“One of the associates passed an unknown item on three separate occasions to the defendant under the table,” the agreed summary of facts states.

“The defendant placed each item into a slit in his overall on the inside of his right leg.”

Russell Toleafoa was sentenced in the Auckland District Court in August 2024.

Corrections officers stepped in to end the visit and search Toleafoa. They found 6.4g of cannabis, 1.4g of cocaine and 15.2g of MDMA.

The inmate was later charged with possession of cannabis and possession of cocaine, which carry maximum possible sentences of three and six months’ imprisonment.

But authorities also charged him with possession of ecstasy for supply – punishable by up to 14 years’ imprisonment.

It was the same maximum punishment Toleafoa faced in August last year, after pleading guilty to the March 2023 close-range shooting of Shum-Kuen-Ip, who was left permanently disabled – bullet fragments are still lodged in his brain.

The two did not know each other, but exchanged words after both showed up with friends at a Gull petrol station in New Lynn.

Police at the incident at the Gull New Lynn near the intersection of Clark St and Portage Rd. Photo / Hayden Woodward

After the minor confrontation, Shum-Kuen-Ip returned to the driver’s seat of his car.

Toleafoa, meanwhile, retrieved a rifle from his vehicle and walked back over to the victim.

“You’re not going to use that, you b****,” Shum-Kuen-Ip allegedly said, according to Toleafoa, before the defendant opened fire.

Toleafoa fled the scene, but was arrested after a brief but high-profile manhunt.

The victim now needs 24-hour care, his mother said during last year’s sentencing hearing in the Auckland District Court.

“My son must suffer for the rest of his life,” she said, before quoting her son: “You have robbed me from ever being normal again.”

Judge Anna Fitzgibbon extended Russell Falani Junior Toleafoa's sentence to five years and eight months' imprisonment. Photo / Natalie Slade

Judge Anna Fitzgibbon sentenced Toleafoa to five years and two months’ imprisonment.

Toleafoa waved to a large group of family members recently as he again stood in the dock before Judge Fitzgibbon, although this time in the North Shore District Court.

Lawyer Annabel Ives, who represented him on the shooting charge too, emphasised her client had not yet been sentenced for the shooting when the drug-smuggling attempt took place.

Had he been charged sooner, it could have been addressed at last year’s hearing, when he was granted discounts for youth and previous good character, she noted.

Since then, Toleafoa had been “doing quite well in prison”, Ives said, explaining he had committed to a one-year welding course so that he could positively contribute to society when released.

Judge Fitzgibbon ordered the latest sentence be stacked on top of the previous one, resulting in a combined sentence of five years and eight months.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.

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