A dealer said to have run a "virtual supermarket" for drugs saw nearly half a million dollars in ill-gotten gains disappear as he was sentenced to 12 years' jail yesterday.
Peter Paul Barker, aged 48, of Ellerslie, had pleaded guilty to 17 counts, some of them representative, concerning dealing in
a wide variety drugs.
The charges related to LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, amphetamine/methamphetamine, morphine sulphate tablets, cannabis and varieties of class C tablets.
In the High Court at Auckland, Justice Hugh Williams said that Barker was in a "major line of business" involving substantial quantities of drugs and money over a prolonged period.
The offending suggested that Barker was prepared to sell any drug in his possession to anybody who asked for it, the judge said.
Barker forfeited $439,625 found by the police.
Prosecutor Steve Bonnar said that, over a two-year period, police financial analysts had assessed Barker's unexplained income at $530,223.
Barker was running a virtual supermarket of class A, B and C controlled drugs, Mr Bonnar said.
Defence counsel Murray Gibson said that though Barker derived large amounts of money from cannabis sales, the more serious class A and B drugs found were primarily for his personal use.
An appeal would be lodged against the sentence.
