Sherryn Elizabeth Erikson was sentenced in the Christchurch High Court for her role in Operation Italian Sky. Tribesmen national vice president Ricky Poa, pictured top left, sat atop the multimillion-dollar drug dealing and money laundering operation.
Sherryn Elizabeth Erikson was sentenced in the Christchurch High Court for her role in Operation Italian Sky. Tribesmen national vice president Ricky Poa, pictured top left, sat atop the multimillion-dollar drug dealing and money laundering operation.
Sherryn Erikson, her sons Michael and Jaxxon Erikson, along with her nephew Jordan Rapana were involved in the multimillion-dollar drug operation.
Sherryn’s Auckland home was used as the key dispatch point for methamphetamine and cocaine.
Now she’s been sentenced to nine months’ home detention for her role in the network.
“Delete all of your conversations and stop ringing and calling people Mum; you’re going to put us all in jail bro, they’ve already got the big KO in jail, we’re trying to get him out.”
That’s what Tribesmen Motorcycle gang member Michael Erikson told his mother Sherryn Elizabeth Erikson as they arranged for close to 2kgs of methamphetamine to be dropped off and picked up from her Auckland home.
But it all came to an end when Poa, along with 10 co-defendants, including the Erikson family, were caught up in a police investigation code-named Operation Italian Sky.
It was then revealed that Sherryn’s home in Blockhouse Bay had been used as the key dispatch point for large quantities of methamphetamine and cocaine.
It was a family operation with Michael working alongside his brother Jaxxon Erikson to manage receipt of the drugs from their cousin and Sherryn’s nephew, Jordan Rapana.
A family affair
Rapana collected the drugs in Auckland and took them to Christchurch on commercial flights and tow-trucks.
Michael and Jaxxon would organise the onward sale and distribution of the drugs, with Michael very closely connected to the principal offender and the operation’s main beneficiary - Poa.
Michael would then return to Auckland with large quantities of cash to pay for subsequent shipments.
Another courier involved in the network was Tramayne Rauhihi, who was also responsible for delivering cash to Auckland and returning to Christchurch with the drugs.
He would complete the deliveries using tow trucks associated with a co-defendant who cannot be named.
Sherryn allowed them to use her home on multiple occasions as a drop-off and collection point for wholesale kilogram quantities of the drugs.
Tribesmen national vice president Ricky Poa, pictured left, sat atop the multimillion-dollar drug dealing and money laundering operation.
A “cog in the machine”
Sherryn, 52, was sentenced for her role in the network this week.
She appeared in the Christchurch High Court facing charges of permitting a premises and vehicle to be used for supplying meth and cocaine.
The court heard she was a “cog in a machine”.
Crown prosecutor Will Taffs said the offending was elevated due to its nature, tied in with financial gain, and the variety and class of drugs.
“There has been financial gain here, this is not drugs in the glove box, culpability is attached because of financial reward.”
While Sherryn was paid for her involvement, Justice Lisa Preston said she did not gain a significant amount compared to those involved in the underlying offending.
Taffs said he accepted the financial reward she received was minimal compared to the overall value of the drugs going through her property.
The summary of facts showed she received six payments between March 2022 and July 2023.
The payments were made by her sons, her nephew and one of his associates.
That included an electronic transfer of $1350 from Jaxxon in March 2022, one of $1250 from Michael in February 2023, one of $600 from Rapana’s associate in March 2023, one of $1000 from Jaxxon in April 2023, and a cash payment of $800 from Rapana in June 2023.
Rapana had messaged Michael clarifying that he was being paid $2500 and Sherryn was being paid $800 for their respective involvement in a delivery on the same day.
On July 18, 2023, she received an $850 electronic payment from Michael, the same day that a delivery of 1.97kg of methamphetamine was intercepted by police at Christchurch Airport.
Rapana was arrested at the time.
Taffs told the court it was a significant operation of which she was a smaller part.
The summary said Michael told an associate in August 2023 that he needed $15,000 taken to his mother’s house.
Mutliple Tribesmen members were charged when Operation Italian Sky targeted their South Island network in 2023.
About two weeks later he told the same associate that he needed meth and cocaine collected from her house.
The associate went to the house to collect the drugs.
On October 3, 2023, Michael contacted his mother and discussed that a quantity of meth would be delivered to her address.
He said that he had “someone dropping something else as well and you will need to put those two things together and put them somewhere safe till I’ve got someone.”
He also told her to “delete all of your conversations and stop ringing and calling people Mum; you’re going to put us all in jail bro, they’ve already got the big KO in jail, we’re trying to get him out.”
Rauhihi was subsequently directed to collect the meth from her house and collected 1.987kg of it in a black shopping bag. The package was intercepted by police later that day.
Background issues
Defence lawyer Marie Taylor-Cyphers said her client had a less serious financial gain than her co-defendants.
She asked the court what Sherryn may have been aware of and her mental state at the time of the offending.
Justice Preston said it was a difficult submission based on Sherryn’s guilty plea and the summary of facts.
Taylor-Cyphers said there were features of dislocation between Sherryn and her whānau, substance dependency issues similar to the ones she had grown up with.
“If her upbringing had not involved these features, would she be standing here today?”
While there was no excuse, and a guilty plea had been entered, how Sherryn got to this point in her life was relevant, Taylor-Cyphers said.
Her background had shaped her choices, she said.
She had made an effort while on bail, completing a rehabilitation programme, she had reconnected with whānau, including an auntie, “and put it to good use”.
Taylor-Cyphers said Sherryn had learned about putting in firmer boundaries in terms of her sons.
A profound sense of shame
Justice Preston said the transfer of money from her sons was out of proportion, given her involvement and her offending was lesser than theirs.
“The offending would have occurred regardless of your knowledge.”
However, she was more than a passive bystander, the judge said.
“By permitting the wholesale supply for many months, you were clearly a trusted cog in that distribution network, this came about at the behest of your sons and nephew, it would have occurred regardless of you, but you were connected to an extremely serious drug operation over a period of time between 2022 and 2023.”
The culpability was in the quantity of drugs and the time period, the judge said.
A contributing factor had been her poor decision-making, informed by her background, Justice Eaton said.
“You have faced many challenges, including abuse, loss of your parents, solo parenting and your own substance abuse.
“I am satisfied your relationship with your sons has contributed, you express a deep sense of remorse, you say this has been a deep painful lesson and you realise the damage meth has done to your whanau and community.
“I sense you express a profound sense of shame.”
Juston Eaton said Sherryn had been on bail for 18 months, subject to curfews.
She was assessed as low risk of reoffending and home detention would achieve the purpose of sentencing, the judge said.
The Crown did not oppose home detention, and a suitable address was available at a home in Blockhouse Bay.
Justice Eaton convicted and sentenced her to nine months’ home detention, telling her to travel to Christchurch Airport and return to the Auckland address.
Al Williams is an Open Justice reporter for the New Zealand Herald, based in Christchurch. He has worked in daily and community titles in New Zealand and overseas for the last 16 years. Most recently he was editor of the HC Post, based in Whangamata. He was previously deputy editor of Cook Islands News.
