Synthetic cannabis ring leader Fei He loses appeal

Police say a vast synthetic drug dealing ring was operating out of Sockburn Dairy in Christchurch. Photo / Kurt Bayer

The "ring leader" of a multimillion-dollar synthetic cannabis ring has lost an appeal to have her conviction thrown out.

Fei He was one of three people charged after the police conducted Operation Sin in 2015.
He owned a dairy in Sockburn that sold synthetic cannabis, which was legal until May 2014.

But the Crown alleged He continued to secretly sell the substance between October 2014 and May 2016, with He being "the ring leader of a significant operation".

A dairy worker would sell the drugs, with another worker preparing and packaging them.
Approximately $20,000-$30,000 was made each week from the sale of synthetics.

He was charged with six charges of possession of non-approved psychoactive substances for sale or supply, one representative charge of sale of non-approved psychoactive substances over an 18-month period and two charges of money laundering.

The Crown case was considered to be "very strong", with various pieces of evidence.

Searches of He's dairy on June 16, 2015, and December 30, 2015, found four quantities of synthetic cannabis packaged in snap-lock plastic bags.

In May 2016 the car of He's assistant, Sui Jun Zhou, was searched by police, who found 980 grams of synthetic cannabis.

After Zhou was arrested, He messaged her other assistant, Xiwen Miao, and said that a police search warrant would take a day to proceed, so "you need to use this one day to tidy up all the stuff".

Maio was then seen moving boxes from his house to a storage unit - $3m-$4m worth of cannabis was found inside when searched.

When He was arrested in August 2016, she had synthetic cannabis concealed in each leg of her track pants.

He accepted a plea deal with the Crown during her trial in June 2019 in which the money laundering charges were dropped.

However, she alleged her lawyers had placed "a lot of pressure" on her to plead guilty, and they turned against her.

Her lawyer denied the allegation.

In a judgment released today, the Court of Appeal rejected He's claims and said it did not find any evidence He provided to back up her claims was credible.

"We are satisfied that no improper pressure was applied by trial counsel," it read.