Some of the cocaine, cash and other items displayed by police when they busted the Canterbury drugs ring. They include parts for a heating system that had cocaine inside it, and the X-ray of a truck carrying a container in which drugs were hidden, taken in Spain. Photo / George Heard
Some of the cocaine, cash and other items displayed by police when they busted the Canterbury drugs ring. They include parts for a heating system that had cocaine inside it, and the X-ray of a truck carrying a container in which drugs were hidden, taken in Spain. Photo / George Heard
Stiff prison sentences have been handed out to South American citizens who, while working on farms in the South Island, formed themselves into a drug-smuggling syndicate that brought millions of dollars of cocaine into New Zealand. Ric Stevens reports on the Colombian connection to rural Canterbury.
Hororata is a village on the Canterbury Plains with a population of about 200, best known for its annual Highland Games festival.
But for a while, together with other Canterbury towns such as Dunsandel and Darfield, it also hosted a syndicate of an international cocaine-smuggling operation tracing back to the feared drug cartels of Colombia.
The group of Colombian farm workers became the biggest supplier of cocaine in New Zealand during the nearly four years they were operating.
Between early 2018 and late 2021, the syndicate imported, or tried to import, more than 100kg of cocaine into New Zealand. The drug had a street value of more than $45 million.
They were successful in bringing in at least 42.5kg, worth $19 million.
Properties in Dunsandel and Darfield were used to receive drug-laden packages sent from overseas. A property at Hororata was used to wash and process the imported cocaine.
The consignments didn’t come directly from South America. They were sent from the United States or England. One consignment was intercepted in Spain. Another shipment came via Hong Kong.
But the syndicate’s family ties, messages found on their phones, and the money trail, pointed back to Colombia — the world’s largest exporter of illicit cocaine and a society racked by decades of drug-fuelled violence and corruption.
Once the cocaine reached New Zealand, the syndicate sold it at the wholesale level and at least one member sometimes retailed it for about $8000 an ounce (28g).
Another syndicate member took cocaine on at least two long-distance trips to a buyer in Auckland, travelling overnight by bus, avoiding the security scanners at Christchurch Airport.
When it came time to pay for the drugs, cash was handed over to contractors of a money-laundering syndicate — suitcases and boxes containing $100,000 at a time — or it was converted into cryptocurrency.
The cash handovers were done in the places ordinary New Zealanders go about their daily business — a carpark in Rolleston or outside the shopping mall in the leafy Christchurch suburb of Merivale.
Cocaine found inside a box as part of Operation Mist. Photo / NZ Police
Identities and transactions were verified using the unique serial numbers of $5 notes, previously notified, which were then countersigned, photographed and sent back to waiting superiors or associates.
What the criminal group did not know was that the New Zealand police, in concert with overseas agencies, had been monitoring their operation for 10 months before they moved in with search warrants and arrested members in November 2021.
American drug agency involved
The syndicate members did not suspect that a local contact receiving cash supposedly bound for Colombia was a New Zealand police officer, working under cover on behalf of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
They would later learn the DEA had covertly arranged to take on the money-laundering contract for the syndicate’s overseas suppliers.
One of the Colombians in Canterbury would claim that when the money supply was disrupted in this way, debts were imposed on him personally.
He said family members still in Colombia were then threatened, forcing him deeper into the operation as he tried to clear the debt.
Police ran their investigation into the group, code-named Operation Mist, through 2021, but their inquiries established the syndicate’s criminal activities stretched back at least to January 2018.
Various players were charged with importing, attempting to import and supplying cocaine, participating in an organised criminal group, and money laundering.
A heat exchanger had about 1kg of cocaine hidden inside. Photo / NZ Police
Over recent weeks, syndicate members and a New Zealander who was one of their customers have been coming before Justice Cameron Mander in the High Court at Christchurch, and have been sent to prison for their crimes.
The stiffest sentence handed down was for Anderson Pelaez Garcia, 31, who had a leadership role in the group. He was sentenced to 15 years and five months’ jail.
Felipe Montoya Opsina, 37, received 14 years and seven months’ imprisonment.
He had the Hororata house, which, when searched, yielded 10 cellphones, $30,000 in cash, tools used to extract cocaine from imported receptacles, and a bottle of acetone, used to wash the drug.
He had a room in his house specifically set aside for breaking open the packaged items in which cocaine had been concealed. He was also the person running drugs to Auckland by bus.
Estaban Blanco Gaviria, who uses Blanco as a surname, got 10 years and one month’s jail.
He was heavily involved in money laundering and provided addresses in rural Canterbury where overseas suppliers sent the consignments.
He told the Colombian exporters to use his first name and any surname when sending the packages. Altogether there were seven parcels identified addressed to Esteban.
David Alfredo Bonilla Casanas, 32, received an eight-year and two-month sentence.
One of his jobs was to launder money by receiving cash from other members of the syndicate and converting it into cryptocurrency, for which he charged a 3% cut.
His bank records show deposits totalling $205,000. He also arranged the importation of some of the cocaine. When police searched his house they found “numerous” driving licences and passports.
Zane Robert Jordan, 33, the Kiwi customer and not a core member of the syndicate, got five years and three months’ imprisonment for possession of cocaine for supply.
The packages brought into New Zealand ranged from as little as 410g as the syndicate employed a strategy of low-weight, high-volume imports.
But one consignment contained 11.4kg of the drug. Another of 23.6kg, hidden in a shipping container, was stopped on the way. That was the consignment intercepted in Spain.
The largest package to be intercepted was in August 2021 and contained 23.6kg of cocaine concealed in a shipping container on a truck in Barcelona. Photo / NZ Police
One striking feature of Justice Mander’s sentencing notes is that the members of the syndicate did not fit the profile of hardened criminals.
The four Colombian men have no criminal history in this country, apart from one with a drink-driving conviction deemed “not relevant” by the judge.
Garcia seems to have been most personally and directly affected by the drug-fuelled violence, civil unrest and guerrilla warfare that has plagued their home country. He lost his father at a young age because of it.
Came to NZ for a better life
But, by his own account, he came to New Zealand in 2018 for a better life and, like the others, took on farm work in Canterbury. He did not intend to get involved with crime and did not do so for about a year.
Opsina is from a “close, stable and religious family” and is well educated with a bachelor’s degree in business management and a postgraduate certificate in quality control systems.
He was working on a farm partly because he struggled with the English language.
His family back in Colombia still support him. They say when he is eventually released from prison, they will pay his airfares home and an uncle will give him work in a family business.
There was an early suggestion that Blanco’s father may have been a Colombian drug cartel member, but his lawyer said “erroneous, inflated” allegations had been made in his case.
Justice Mander noted Blanco’s employer had attested to his work ethic and reliability, and Blanco expressed regret for the damage he had caused to New Zealand.
Bonilla Casanas arrived in New Zealand as a 15-year-old and letters provided in his support describe him as a “caring individual”, a good father, and an able student and worker.
A box full of cash seized as part of Operation Mist. Photo / NZ Police
Even Zane Jordan, the Kiwi involved, has no criminal history apart from a couple of driving offences for which he was fined in 2012.
He worked as a tradesman consistently since leaving school at the age of 15, and was described in references provided to the court as responsible, trustworthy, diligent, popular and having an “exceptional work ethic”.
Yet this trustworthy, hard-working man somehow found himself, in April and July 2021, sitting in a car in Auckland, waiting for some South Americans from Christchurch to bring him large amounts of cocaine.
Jordan was involved in two cash handovers for the drug — paying the two men who got into his car $100,000 on one occasion and $114,100 for the other.
So, what motivated this group of people with no criminal background — and who, in the eyes of others, come across as good and reliable workers — to become involved in such serious crimes?
Money was motivator
The common thread running through all of Justice Mander’s sentencing notes is that they simply did it for the money.
Isolation may have played a part, working in rural Canterbury, particularly through the Covid times, and socialising together as Spanish-speaking compatriots that in turn may have put them in touch with other members of the South American community with links to the drugs trade.
But it was mainly about the money.
“You have candidly accepted that it was a desire to earn more money that influenced your decision to offend,” Justice Cameron told Garcia.
Detective Superintendent Greg Williams, national manager operations organised crime. "Don’t bother coming,” he told international drugs syndicates. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“It is apparent ... that the motivation for your offending was a financial one which, perhaps, at least initially, was influenced by the people you were drawn to because of your relative isolation.”
To Opsina, the judge said: “You were motivated solely or primarily by financial advantage.” He rejected a lawyer’s suggestion that Opsina was partially motivated by dependence on the drug.
Casanas, the judge said, was motivated by a combination of financial gain and drug use.
He said Blanco would not have got involved if it were not for the financial rewards.
“It is important to recognise the harm caused by serious drug offending, particularly that of Class A drugs,” Justice Cameron said when sending Casanas to jail.
“Your offending does not have a direct victim, but the distribution of cocaine, like other hard drugs, has countless victims within the community who often experience the very worst of outcomes.
“These include adverse mental health, criminal offending to fund addiction, the breakdown of personal and employment relationships, and social deprivation,” Justice Mander said.
“Society as a whole is harmed.”
Nearly 70 police and Customs staff involved in inquiry
Operation Mist, which uncovered the syndicate, involved nearly 70 police and Customs staff working alongside international agencies including the DEA, the Colombian National Police, the Spanish Customs Service and the Cook Island Customs Service.
Police said based on wastewater analysis, the Canterbury-based group was supplying most of the cocaine coming into New Zealand at that time.
Although those arrested had been working on farms, the police said there was nothing to suggest farm owners and managers had any idea of the syndicate’s dealings.
At the time Operation Mist was wrapped up, Detective Superintendent Greg Williams said New Zealand was a small society with effective investigative tools and cross-agency capability.
Through enduring relationships with international partners, the police had a very good understanding of the global drugs trade and the methods used to bring drugs in and move cash out.
“Don’t bother coming,” Williams said in comments aimed at international drug organisations.
“We will identify your people, we will break your networks, we will seize what assets you have, whether here or overseas, and when caught, your people can expect to spend considerable time in our jails.”
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 frontline experience as a probation officer.
