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The lawyer for one of two South African visitors charged with importing P into New Zealand has described the amount of methamphetamine as so tiny that if you "breathed hard" it would disappear.
Laila Jamal Simmonds, 29, pleaded guilty to importing 24 grams of cannabis and one joint charge of importing one quarter of a gram of methamphetamine when she appeared in the Tauranga District Court yesterday.
Simmonds and her compariot, Chris Olley, 53, were arrested on July 10 after two suspect parcels addressed to her stepfather's Matua address were intercepted at the Auckland mail centre in June.
Her lawyer, David Bates, argued that given the lack of prior convictions and the minimal amount of drugs, Judge Stan Thorburn could convict her without any further penalty. The police officer in charge, Detective Todd Pearce, supported the request and Judge Thorburn said he was prepared to convict and discharge Simmonds on this occasion.
The court was told that, on June 30, customs staff at the Auckland mail centre were alerted by a drug dog to a package forwarded from South Africa containing 24g of cannabis.
When Tauranga detectives searched the Matua address that was the parcel's destination, Simmonds confirmed she was staying with her stepfather there and had been expecting the package. A diary note revealed that another parcel, containing P, was being posted by an associate named Chris. Simmonds told police that he arrived at the address on the same day as that package.
Defence counsel Tony Balme, who represents Olley, sought a further one-week remand without plea until July 22 and would not seek further interim name suppression.
- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES
