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He wore new designer trainers, carried a Gucci bag and was called "Moneybags" by friends at school.
But a teenager facing four years in prison for importing more than $270,000 worth of methamphetamine was paid only $5000 by his drug lord bosses.
Seventeen-year-old Chun Lee, who planned to
study biomedicine at university next year, was from a family of high achievers who emigrated from Taiwan eight years ago.
His father, Yao Lee, was a high-ranking official in the Taiwanese military who moved to New Zealand to create a better life for his family.
He and his wife Hui-Chen Chuang run a North Island tour business and were steadfast supporters at the sentencing.
Yesterday Chuang told the Herald on Sunday the family were shocked at Lee's crime and prison sentence.
"We can't talk about this, we need to calm down because we are very upset. No matter what's happened I still love my son."
Lee's uncle, a high-ranking Taiwanese diplomat, wrote a testimonial for his nephew in which he apologised to New Zealand for the crime he committed.
Lee's lawyer Sanjay Patel said appealing against the sentence was a possibility. "But imprisonment was always the only option really. For any mum or dad, it's destroying."
Lee was sentenced at the High Court in Auckland on Friday after earlier pleading guilty to one charge of importing the Class A drug known as P. Customs officials at Auckland airport found 273g of the drug packed into hairdryers from China.
The shipment had a street value of $1000 a gram.
The court heard that Lee was used as a "catcher" - his job was to recruit young people and arrange addresses for the drugs to be sent to.
Patel said Lee was paid a lump sum of about $5000 for his part, enough to buy a second-hand car.
He later sold the car and donated the proceeds to Starship Hospital and never profited from the distribution of the drug.
Patel said Lee was "very much at the bottom of the foodchain" and all contact with his bosses was via text message. "The less people who know who the masters are, the less risk for them," said Patel.
"It's easy for those guys to nab little kids, because that's what Larry is. Kids don't really think about that sort of stuff."
The ringleaders have never been found but a number of young people - including Lee - face Youth Court charges related to the importing of pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient in the manufacture of methamphetamine.
Lee claimed - and the Crown accepted- that the 273g package was pseudoephedrine and not P.
The officer in charge of the investigation, Detective Sergeant Mark Osbourne, did not return calls.
Although he was under a 24-hour curfew imposed as part of his bail conditions, Lee was allowed to attend classes in his final year of study at decile 10 Takapuna Grammar - and to carry on with his part-time job at KFC.
The board of trustees later decided Lee should be home-schooled and he received 10 hours specialist teaching a week.
Court proceedings were halted so Lee could complete his Year 13 NCEA exams. He is planning to attend university after his serves his time.
