Air NZ baggage handler Matangikolo Piukana sentenced to 8 years jail for importing meth

Matangikolo Piukana was prosecuted in connection with three importations of meth from Malaysia in June and July 2021. Photo / Supplied

An Air New Zealand employee who was “responsible for a crew of corrupt baggage handlers” in a syndicate importing methamphetamine has been sentenced to eight years and nine months in jail.

Matangikolo Piukana was prosecuted in connection with three importations of meth from Malaysia in June and July 2021.

He pleaded guilty on representative charges of importing meth and conspiracy to import the drug, but insisted the amounts alleged by authorities were incorrect.

While the Crown prosecution described him as a “logistical organiser”, the defence argued he was simply a “messenger” for the criminal syndicate importing methamphetamine into New Zealand.

Today, Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith concluded his position in the scheme was at the “higher end of significant but below leading” and that the drugs would have caused significant harm to communities.

Piukana was involved in importing at least 100kg of meth, which was a “conservative” estimate, for a drug scheme led by King Cobras gang member Nigel Iuvale.

Justice Wilkinson-Smith noted Piukana’s “involvement at a relatively early stage of the operation”, which continued until the scheme was busted, and said Piukana’s role was “below Mr Iuvale, but above [his] co-offenders”.

A starting point of 22 years imprisonment was adopted, but Justice Wilkinson-Smith applied a 25% guilty plea discount, saying Piukana’s admission encouraged others to come forward.

Discounts were also applied for rehabilitation efforts, his clean criminal history, his background and his previous good character.

After a total 60% discount, the overall sentence was eight years and nine months imprisonment with no minimum imprisonment period.

The Crown highlighted that the summary facts noted a friendship between Piukana and Nigel Iuvale, a King Cobras gang member and the ringleader of the drug import scheme.

“He was in effect the top of middle management,” the Crown argued, and he used his leadership role at Air New Zealand alongside his family members to conspire to import drugs.

“He was in a role with significant authority and trust within the border security”.

Large amounts of cash were seized when police and Customs closed down a smuggling operation involving baggage handlers at Auckland Airport in 2021. Photo / NZ Police

In her judgment, Justice Wilkinson-Smith said police had acknowledged Piukana did not physically take possession of the methamphetamine that had been brought into the country, but he “facilitated” its importation.

“When the value of the controlled drugs or cash that he handled is taken into account, he must have unlawfully benefited from his role in facilitating the importation of at least 110kg of methamphetamine.”

‘Debt to the gang’

Piukana received orders from the criminal group to assign baggage handling staff to particular flights to collect the imported drugs.

The drugs were then driven off airport grounds without going through the Customs area.

Lawyer Emma Priest downplayed his involvement in the criminal drug syndicate, saying he “had no direct dealing with the drugs whatever in this case” and that he “was not strategically positioned”.

Priest said methamphetamine addiction began through meeting gang members at the rugby club, leaving him in “debt to the gang”.

Piukana was an exemplary community leader and the primary caregiver for his five children before he became “trapped in [gang] underworld offending”, she argued.

Priest sought a discount for Piukana’s upbringing, which she described as “one of depravation, poverty, abuse and disconnection or abandonment”.

Operation Selena

Police’s National Organised Crime Group and the Customs Service began a joint investigation, codenamed Operation Selena, in June 2021.

Piukana was among several airline employees rounded up in the operation.

On November 12, Nigel Iuvale, a King Cobras gang member with an inoperable brain tumour, was sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment after prosecutors described him as “the head of the snake” of the meth-importing operation.

Nigel Iuvale was sentenced in November to 18 years' jail for his role in the meth-importing operation. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Matangikolo Piukana’s little brother, fellow baggage handler Kimela Piukana, was sentenced in September to seven months’ home detention after Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith rejected his bid for a discharge without conviction.

Kimela Piukana had been a university student before dropping out in 2017 to look after his ailing father, lawyer Ben Mugisho said during his sentencing hearing, explaining that after his client’s father died the younger Piukana came under the bad influence of his older brother.

During that hearing, Justice Wilkinson-Smith said the older brother “should be ashamed”.

“You are, however, an adult,” she told Kimela Piukana. “You were capable of being better than this and you are capable of being better than this in the future.”

In addition to the criminal prosecution, police went after the money earned from the drug importations. In total, $413,290 became the property of the Crown.

Matangikolo Piukana also stored large amounts of cash at the home of his sister, Sanlolan Piukana, and her husband, Sitaleki Maka.

Sanlolan Piukana and Maka both pleaded guilty to receiving the $316,900 found at their Waterview, Auckland home. They were sentenced to 12 months’ home detention on November 14.

Several other baggage handlers have already been sentenced for their roles in the operation, with jail terms ranging from two years and four months to 12 years and six months.

Jaime Lyth is a multimedia journalist for the New Zealand Herald focusing on crime and breaking news. Lyth began working under the Herald masthead in 2021 as a reporter for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei.