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The member of the famed Nobilo Wines family arrested on methamphetamine charges is now also accused of possessing cocaine.
Police laid the fresh charge on Thursday against Keita Nobilo, ex-girlfriend of sportsman Matthew Ridge.
The cocaine charge came in the same week the West Aucklander's legal team lost a name suppression battle in the district and high courts.
Keita's grandfather, Nikola Nobilo, founded the Nobilo Wines empire in 1943, after emigrating six years earlier from Croatia where the family's winemaking tradition goes back more than 300 years. The family is reported to have sold much of its holding in the company for $15 million.
Together, Nobilo, 26, and co-accused Joshua Ira McPherson, 27, face six drugs charges stemming from a 7am police raid at a Motutara Rd, Muriwai residence on June 29.
Nobilo has entered no plea to charges of possession of methamphetamine for supply, possession of cannabis and possession of a glass P pipe.
The additional charge against the pair of possessing cocaine also results from the June 29 raid.
Nobilo and McPherson weren't charged with cocaine possession until last week because police were awaiting the results of forensic testing by ESR.
Police ended up at McPherson's Motutara Rd home in an investigation into the activities of a busy Helensville burglar, who had allegedly targeted 50 homes in Waiuku, Kumeu and Muriwai - stealing plasma televisions, firearms, electronics and other high-value household items.
They arrested the alleged "ring-leader" after catching him driving a stolen vehicle in central Auckland. He was charged with more than 50 burglary-related offences, and has been remanded in custody pending a pre-depositions hearing.
On April 18, a Subaru Legacy was stolen from an address in Whenuapai. Several days later, police found the car at the home of an associate of the accused burglar. Inquiries led officers to McPherson's home, and the June 29 raid followed.
Crown documents obtained by the Herald on Sunday reveal that "during the search police located straws for the purpose of consuming methamphetamine" and a search was carried out under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
It is the prosecution case that officers discovered 8 grams of methamphetamine, 4.7 grams of cannabis, 47 milligrams of cocaine and drug paraphernalia - including a glass pipe and snaplock bags.
The prosecution claims Nobilo lived at the Motutara Rd house with McPherson.
Nobilo spent a night in Mt Eden prison after a justice of the peace denied her bail, a decision reversed the following day at Waitakere District Court.
The most serious charge Nobilo faces, possessing methamphetamine, or P, for supply carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
On Monday, an Appeal Court stay preventing Nobilo's name from being published ran out.
Nobilo's lawyer, Mark Ryan, had earlier argued that damage would be caused to the Nobilo Wine group if publication was permitted and that his client would forever suffer the "stigma" of the drugs allegations even if the police case failed.
Nobilo and her mother, Hilary, both declined to talk about the case or what strain it has caused their family.
McPherson, a self-employed builder, initially agreed to talk to the Herald on Sunday but later changed his mind, saying: "I would need to ask Keita first."
However he denied he was ever in a relationship with Nobilo, saying that they were "just friends".
It is understood the pair met during their school years.
Nobilo didn't regularly feature on the Auckland social scene until she met Celebrity Treasure Island and Game of Two Halves star Matthew Ridge in December 2004, at a nightclub in Japan. With a degree in international communications, she worked in Japan as an English teacher in 2003.
Ridge and Nobilo later returned to Auckland and began popping up in gossip columns and magazine pages. The heiress - who now receives a sickness benefit - worked part-time at Ridge's car valet business, Car-Fe'.
They lived together at the plush Princes Wharf apartment complex, Lighter Quay, the home that Nobilo was in when she received text messages from Ridge, 38, while he was holidaying in Europe, confessing he was with football star David Beckham's former personal assistant Rebecca Loos.
At the time, Nobilo was awaiting the results of tests on a tumour apparently caused after her auto-immune system collapsed from a spider bite she received in Japan in 2004.
After the split, Nobilo told Woman's Day her life had been turned upside down.
"My whole life has been pulled out from under my feet. I think I'm still in shock... He owed it to me to fly home and help me move out of our house. I'm sick. Don't treat me like that. Give me the respect I deserve," she was quoted as saying.
Former league player Ridge did not return calls but his former wife, Sally Ridge, was reported in a recent newspaper column as being "pleased" Ridge had split from Nobilo. Sally Ridge told the Herald on Sunday last week that she had met Nobilo but would not speak about her. Keita's cousin Krista - a model and actress who has appeared on Shortland Street, and whose father is Nick Nobilo - said she was at a loss to understand why the media were giving her cousin such a hard time "just because she went out with Matthew Ridge".
Reaction to Nobilo's name suppression being lifted was mixed, with some internet forum users commenting that the drawn-out court process had actually drawn more attention to the story. Friends and acquaintances spoke online on seeing Keita's photograph in the media and "not recognising" her. One friend spoke of Nobilo's support for her around the time of an accident in 2001. "Keita was my absolute angel ... She supported me through a year that was really up and down for me. Without her, I would of (sic) been fully lost." The friend went on to say that publicity around the charges would "wreck" Nobilo's life.
"Such a wonderful, unconditional, giving person, just doesn't deserve shit like this to happen."
