Meth cook sentenced to 15 years' jail

A second Northlander involved in cooking one of the largest amounts of methamphetamine ever in New Zealand has been sentenced to 15 years in jail.

Anthony Hone Mangu was among a number of people arrested as part of police drug operation - code-named Operation Easter - in late 2014.

The 34-year-old father of seven - himself a meth addict - was one of the two cooks who manufactured about 7.245kg of meth over 10 weeks in a property in Taipuha Rd at Waiotira, between Whangarei and Paparoa. He appeared for sentencing in the High Court at Whangarei yesterday after earlier pleading guilty to five charges of offering to supply methamphetamine three of manufacturing, methamphetamine, one of conspiracy to supply methamphetamine, and a charge of participating in an organised criminal group.

The other cook, Jaydean Hura, was last month sentenced to 16 years and eight months in jail for manufacturing at least 9kg of methamphetamine.

In court yesterday, Mangu's lawyer Arthur Fairley said his client had been embroiled in the drug world from a young age although he did not have a significant history of drug offending.

Justice Simon Moore said there could be no other outcome for serious charges such as the manufacture and supply of methamphetamine other than a lengthy jail sentence. He said Mangu, under the instructions of Brownie Harding, who was the alleged prime offender in the drug operation, manufactured methamphetamine on six different occasions between September and December 2014.

The drug, he said, was cooked in truly enormous quantities and tests revealed it was 73 per cent pure. Justice Moore spoke about the impact of methamphetamine on society as a whole. He accepted Mangu was not the primary cook and that his offending was driven in large part on his addiction to the drug.

Mangu started smoking cannabis at the age of 11 and was introduced to methamphetamine when he was 19, Justice Moore said. He said Mangu's guilty plea only came in the face of overwhelming evidence against him. He ordered a minimum non parole of seven-and-a-half years.