More than $1m cash was seized during an investigation into organised crime in 2021. Photo / NZ Police
Police searching a drug dealer’s house found more than $1 million in cash in a bedroom.
The officers who went to the Flat Bush, Auckland home of Po-Chen Chien also found 159g of methamphetamine, with a street value of more than $70,000.
When they searched three other locations associated with Chien, they found a loaded AK-47 semiautomatic rifle, along with other firearms, ammunition and ephedrine.
Court documents say the 37-year-old turned to drug dealing after being hassled by loan sharks who had been funding his gambling to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Police searched Chien’s properties in April 2021, but the scale of what they found has now been made public in a Court of Appeal judgment issued this month.
Chien appealed to the court against a prison sentence of five years and two months, imposed in the Papakura District Court in May 2023.
He had earlier pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing methamphetamine and representative charges of possessing ephedrine for supply, and unlawfully possessing a firearm and ammunition.
Methamphetamine is a Class A drug. Ephedrine is a Class B drug in its own right, but is also commonly used as a precursor in the illicit manufacture of meth.
Chien appealed against the length of his jail term on the grounds a discount he got for his rehabilitation efforts and showing remorse was insufficient.
However, the Appeal Court justices disagreed and dismissed his appeal, ruling his prison sentence was not manifestly excessive.
Their judgment set out the background to Chien’s case, taken from an agreed summary of facts.
His house was searched on April 16, 2021 as part of a broader investigation by the police National Organised Crime Group into the importation and distribution of drugs.
The 159g of meth was found in a shoebox in his bedroom, along with the $1 million in cash.
Police then searched his car and found a .22 calibre revolver.
At a storage unit rented by Chien in East Tamaki, officers found 3.85kg of ephedrine hidden in the false bottom of a crate.
The summary of facts said the ephedrine had been imported by post on or around March 27, 2021.
On May 19, 2021, police searched another property connected with Chien.
They found another crate and another 3.4kg of hidden ephedrine imported the previous month.
On May 27, 2021, police searched another storage unit in Mt Eden.
They found 5g of meth, 89.8g of ephedrine, electric scales, zip-lock bags, the loaded AK-47, a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, a loaded bolt-action rifle and 1482 rounds of ammunition of varying calibres.
The Appeal Court judgment said Chien had two previous convictions for assault and one for careless driving. His previous most serious penalty was a fine.
A cultural report said he had been raised in Taiwan by his grandparents from the age of 5 and came to New Zealand as a student at the age of 15.
He had suffered some childhood trauma. He also suffered from depression from a young age, and it became more persistent after he came to New Zealand.
He left school with no qualifications at 17, was married at 18 and had two children, but his long work hours at that time put pressure on the relationship and the couple separated.
The separation, combined with Chien’s existing mental health condition, triggered his gambling abuse, the Appeal Court justices said.
“Mr Chien had been unemployed since his divorce in 2014 and ... he turned to gambling rather than employment and acquired debts of hundreds of thousands of dollars to ‘loan sharks’.
“The [psychologist’s] report records that Mr Chien then agreed to work with his creditors in order to try to clear his debts, and also developed a methamphetamine habit at around the same time.”
Since being arrested, Chien has undertaken 21 rehabilitation courses to address his drug and gambling issues.
A pre-sentence report said that he was now drug-free and “contrite and remorseful” for his offending.
He spent 19 months on electronically monitored bail without breaching it.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.
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