A former Auckland drug runner who served as a minion in one of New Zealand’s largest ever syndicates has been sentenced to a shade under a decade in prison.
When Maximiliano Javier Luna was brought into the dock at the Auckland High Court on Tuesday morning to learn his fate he was a couple of minutes late for his sentencing.
Luna, 34, had been waylaid saying goodbye to his many supporters. He and they were under no illusion he would receive anything other than a lengthy term of imprisonment.
His parents, friends and members of his church were among those who packed into the public gallery. He had been on bail.
Luna’s lawyer, Matt Goodwin, said he had been seduced into the sprawling and sophisticated syndicate amid financial difficulties, cultural pressure and personal tragedy with the death of his grandfather, his “mainstay of support”.
“There’s been, make no mistake, a real fall from grace from someone who’s a family man and a church-going man,” Goodwin said.
“I’d have to say it’s a tragedy.”
Luna is originally from Argentina but moved to New Zealand with his family aged 12 because of the economic travails of their country.
Luna was one of a number of people arrested in 2020 during Operation Mystic, targeting what prosecutors called an “extremely large-scale drug importing and distribution syndicate”.
He was the second to last person arrested as part of the police operation into the syndicate who had either not pleaded out or been found guilty by a jury for his involvement in the international drug cartel.
It was led by Xavier Valent, aka Harry Whitehead, the former teenage drug dealer and prolific tagger in Auckland turned modern day Mr Asia, who ran the syndicate between 2016 and 2020 from his exile overseas while on the run from authorities.
Valent was found guilty of dozens of charges covering the importation, supply and manufacture of a range of drugs including meth, cocaine and MDMA at a marathon trial earlier this year. He is serving a life sentence in a special unit of Auckland Prison at Paremoremo.
A man accused of serving as a methamphetamine cook with the syndicate has pleaded not guilty and will stand trial in the Auckland District Court later this month.
Luna earlier pleaded guilty to 10 charges covering the importation, possession or supply of methamphetamine, cocaine, meth-precursor chemical ephedrine and LSD.
Among the charges he admitted were the processing for supply of 4kg of cocaine which had been imported from Brazil and the supply of MDMA hidden in a Keri juice bottle.
On most charges, Valent was named as a co-offender along with other minions in the syndicate.
Crown prosecutor Ben Kirkpatrick sought a starting point of between 13 and 14 years in prison.
“He was handling grams, ounces and kilograms of methamphetamine, cocaine and MDMA,” Kirkpatrick said.
Goodwin suggested between 11 and 12 years was a more appropriate starting point.
Goodwin said his client was remorseful and there were strong prospects of rehabilitation, and deserved a small discount on that basis. He also sought a discount for his previous good character as Luna has no previous convictions.
“He is very fearful of what is going to happen to him and the effect on his family,” Goodwin said.
Justice Graham Lang adopted an initial starting point range on the meth charges, which he deemed the most serious and covering 7kg of the Class A drug, as between 10 years and life imprisonment.
That is the highest band because the amount of meth involved was more than 2kg.
Justice Lang landed on a starting point of 13 years and six months imprisonment for the meth charge, before applying an uplift of three years for the remaining charges.
A discount of three years for guilty pleas was applied but Justice Lang did not find much in the cultural report that could have caused his offending.
“The offending appears to have been driven largely by your need for money to support your ailing businesses,” Justice Lang said.
Justice Lang applied further small discounts for his rehabilitative prospects and previous good character, and certain factors in his cultural report, taking the total sentence down to nine years, 11 months in prison.
Goodwin sought no minimum term of imprisonment to take into account his rehabilitative prospects.
But Justice Lang said the magnitude of his offending meant a minimum term was warranted to hold him accountable for his offending.
“You’re a mature adult and you knew full well what you were doing.”
Justice Lang required him to serve at least four years before he is eligible for parole.
Several people in the public gallery were in tears as he was taken down into custody to begin his sentence.
Luna was brought into the syndicate by Valent’s primary storeman, court documents show.
The storeman was forming his own distribution team within the syndicate and wanted Luna, a close associate, to be part of his team. He was brought into the fold around September 2018.
Initially, he acted as a receiver or “catcher” of imported drug consignments smuggled through the post.
By 2019 he was the primary drug runner in the storeman’s team.
The storeman bought him a red Audi to use for his drug running and paid him between $2000 and $5000 a week in cash.
Luna pleaded to 10 charges in all: importing MDMA, conspiracy to possess ephedrine, possession for supply of cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA, ephedrine and LSD, and supplying meth, MDMA and ephedrine.
Several of the charges carry a maximum possible term of life imprisonment.
Through the investigation, an undercover police surveillance team saw Luna repeatedly meeting with members of the syndicate, including several drug deals.
“Mr Luna was handling grams, ounces and kilograms of methamphetamine, cocaine and MDMA in addition to substantial amounts of ephedrine,” court documents said.
“While Mr Luna’s role never progressed from ‘runner’, he had an appreciation of how the syndicate worked and demonstrated ambition to progress into another, more significant role within the syndicate.”
Intercepted communications showed Luna and the storeman discussing a daily order for delivery that included a kilogram of meth in a tea package and MDMA in a Keri juice bottle.
Between December and February 2020, Luna and the storeman processed 4kg of cocaine imported from Brazil.
Valent had arranged for a passenger to smuggle the cocaine on board a flight from Brazil and had paid for the mule’s tickets.
Luna collected the cocaine and brought it back for the storeman.
“The cocaine was pressed into panels in the hard sections of a suitcase and taped with dark blue sticky tape.”
He once asked to be paid even on days there was no work to be undertaken by the syndicate, in effect a salary.
Luna would drop off money at the money remittance business in Newmarket Lidong Foreign Exchange via which Valent funnelled his dirty cash overseas.
Lidong’s owner Ye (Cathay) Hua was earlier this year found guilty of 15 money laundering charges and will be sentenced in November.
Emergency services were called to the scene about 8.30pm.