Golf cart meth bust: Man sentenced to 15 years behind bars

Yu Chiu Tan appears in the Auckland High Court for sentencing today. Photo / Ben Leahy

A Taiwanese man who helped smuggle 110kg of methamphetamine into the country hidden inside golf carts now faces up to 15 years behind bars.

Customs officers made the spectacular drug bust last year when they found the meth concealed inside batteries in three six-seater electric golf carts.

Seizing some of the meth, Customs teams then replaced it with a harmless substance in a dramatic sting that ultimately led to the capture of Yu Chiu Tan.

The 40-year-old Yu subsequently pleaded guilty to importing the class A drug into New Zealand from the United States.

In the High Court at Auckland, Justice Matthew Palmer today sentenced Yu to 15-and-a-half-years in prison with a minimum period of seven years behind bars.

Palmer gave Yu credit for his early guilty plea.

Crown prosecutor Dennis Dow earlier equated the 110kg import of meth from Long Beach in California to causing about $136 million worth of "societal harm".

He said Yu took part in the operation solely to make a buck.

There was no evidence he was coerced or naive to the seriousness of his actions, Dow said.

Yu was also running his own operations on the ground in New Zealand, he said.

Dow pointed to how he extracted the drugs - some of which had by now been replaced with a harmless substance - from the golf cart batteries, paid freight fees and arranged rental properties to store the goods.

Around 110kg of meth was found inside golf cart batteries in February last year. Photo / Supplied

However, Yu's defence lawyer David Niven argued his client had a "lesser role" in the operation.

Yu performed all the "high risk" parts of the trafficking operation, including going to a freight office to pay for the transport costs of the golf carts.

These were "high visibility" jobs where Yu would be photographed by security cameras.

Niven argued that multinational drug operations would only use "expendable", less important people to perform these types of jobs.

Justice Palmer ultimately concluded Yu had played a significant role in the smuggling operation, although not as serious as prosecutors argued.

Palmer said Yu did not appear to have been coerced into taking part in the operation.

However, there was no evidence to suggest he would have sold and distributed the drugs locally or showing how and when he would have profited from his part in it.

Palmer also noted Yu had expressed regret and that his mother had sent a letter saying she "feels painful and tortured inside" and "hates herself" for not raising her child better.

She apologised to everyone in New Zealand.

However, meth was ultimately one of the most dangerous drugs and a strong deterrent had to be sent to those looking to import it into New Zealand, Palmer said.

HOW THE IMPORTATION AND DRUG STING UNFOLDED

Yu arrived at Auckland International Airport on January 11, last year, via Sydney using his Taiwanese passport and a three-month visitor visa.

Nearly a week later, a container carrying three electric six-seater golf carts arrived in New Zealand from Long Beach, California.

Then in early February, Yu arrived unannounced at a UB Freight outlet asking to speak to the Chinese speaking brokers.

They were on a lunch break so Yu returned a short time later to pay $4666 of GST owing on the consignment before leaving.

However, Customs later examined the golf carts where they made their discovery.

Concealed in the each of the eight batteries in each of the carts was methamphetamine - the total haul across all 24 batteries was 110kg.

The sender of the golf carts is an unknown individual, who resides outside New Zealand and used WeChat to communicate with UB Freight.

A CONTROLLED DROP

Customs removed the Class A drug from the golf carts and repacked the batteries largely with placebo.

On February 13, police and Customs officers commenced a controlled delivery of the consignment.

That morning, Yu arrived at UB Freight to pay the $5400 outstanding demurrage before inspecting and photographing the golf carts.

Arrangements were later made for them to be delivered to Hepburn Rd in Glendene on February 15.

Yu himself was staying on Kaikoura St in Henderson, but had also rented the Hepburn Rd property.

He told the landlady that he wanted to rent the address for "about a month" and store three golf carts at the address for "about a week".

On February 14, another defendant - who denies offending - allegedly told Yu which storage unit they should use to stash the methamphetamine.

Yu then drove to Bunnings Warehouse in New Lynn where he purchased a number of items including a socket set, reciprocal saw and several 10L – 20L size plastic buckets.

At 9am the next day, the three golf carts were delivered to the Hepburn Rd address and left sitting in the driveway - Yu arrived about 15 minutes later.

Over the next few hours, he was observed coming and going from the property, removing the batteries from the golf carts.

He placed all the batteries in his car and drove to Storage King in Avondale to stow them.

On February 22, Yu removed three batteries and the majority of the tools from the storage unit.

He took these items to a property on McQuoids Rd, Flatbush, where he had rented a room the day prior.

Customs and police executed a search warrant there that evening.

Two intact batteries were found in Yu's room.

The third had been opened and the placebo methamphetamine had been placed into several snap lock plastic bags.

The room contained a set of kitchen electronic scales, plastic zip lock bags, gloves, buckets and tools.

Discovered in Yu's rented van was the casing for the third battery and a Magner M75 money counting machine.

Yu, who had not previously appeared before the courts, initially admitted his actions and said that gloves, bags and buckets found in his room were for extracting the methamphetamine.

After consulting with a lawyer, he declined to answer any further questions.