Jaydean Hura and Mark Lang were involved in cooking meth at this Waiotira property in Northland.
Jaydean Hura and Mark Lang were involved in cooking meth at this Waiotira property in Northland.
Two cooks involved in the manufacture of the largest amount of methamphetamine ever cooked in New Zealand at a Northland property have managed to persuade the court to quash their minimum periods of imprisonment.
Jaydean Hura and Mark Lang were sentenced by the High Court in Whangārei in 2016 to jail terms of 16 years and eight months and 15 years’ imprisonment respectively for their part in the drug operation.
Quashing their minimum period of imprisonment (MPI) of 50 per cent, the Court of Appeal said a full bench of that court has confirmed imposing an MPI routinely was inconsistent with the Sentencing Act.
Rather, the court said a reasoned analysis was required both in relation to the imposition of an MPI and its length.
Hura and Lang argued imposition of MPI was not justified in their cases.
Last year, the Court of Appeal quashed the MPI of another meth cook, Elijah Rogers, so he would no longer have to serve 19 years in prison before he became eligible for parole.
At least nine kilograms of meth with a street value between $3.2 million and $4.5m was cooked over 10 weeks in a property on Taipuha Rd at Waiotira, between Whangārei and Paparoa, between September and December 2014.
Police and ESR staff at the scene of a raid on a methamphetamine lab on Taipuha Road, southwest of Whangārei.
It was the largest amount of meth cooked in New Zealand that police are aware of.
Police raided the property and arrested 14 people after watching drug cooking and distribution activities for seven months during their covert investigation.
Both Hura and Lang were meth addicts and applied for an extension of time to file an appeal, which was granted.
Hura told the Court of Appeal he was not aware of his legal rights in relation to an appeal after his sentencing. He said the possibility of an appeal was not something his lawyer discussed with him, to the best of his memory.
Both prisoners first became aware that an MPI could be appealed on its own when a fellow inmate successfully appealed out of time and to have his MPI set aside.
“Mr Hura says he now sees where he went wrong and is actively trying to create a positive future for himself and repair his relationship with his daughter. That will be his main priority once he is released from prison,” the Court of Appeal judges said.
Lang became a tohunga whakairo [master carver] and has been involved in pōwhiri and presentations for visitors to the prison, including a number of Cabinet ministers.
He has been a mentor for other men and has been involved in kaupapa Māori pathways within the prison.
“The sentence of 14 years and four months’ imprisonment imposed on Mr Lang is a lengthy sentence that in itself emphasises accountability, denunciation and deterrence. The standard MPI for that sentence would be four years and nine months.”
The ringleader of the drug operation, Brownie Harding, is serving a 28-year prison term for his role in supervising the production of meth.
