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A “simple but also ingenious” plot by a drug trafficking syndicate to exploit a blindspot in New Zealand’s border control system was at first wildly successful, with a group of corrupt Auckland Airport baggage handlers helping to divert what is believed to have been hundreds of kilograms of methamphetamine from international flights before they were caught.
That scheme is now considered fact because most of the participants have pleaded guilty, jurors were told today as the trial began for the two remaining defendants resulting from a months-long undercover investigation by police and Customs dubbed Operation Selena.
Nigel Iuvale, alleged to be the kingpin of the operation, and airport employee Tungane Manuel have both pleaded not guilty in the High Court at Auckland to having participated in the syndicate.
Authorities allege that for most of 2021 Iuvale was directing Manuel and others at the airport as they offloaded illicit drug shipments stowed aboard Malaysian Airlines flights from Kuala Lumpur and Air New Zealand flights from Los Angeles.
While Customs has a rigorous screening process aimed at detecting drugs hidden in luggage and on passengers, the system relied upon the luggage and passengers being brought to the terminal, Crown prosecutor Matthew Nathan explained during his opening address.
“In Operation Selena, the defendants simply removed that risk,” Nathan said, explaining that the baggage handlers were given photos of the bags containing drugs and paid to set them aside as they unloaded the planes - delivering them instead to a checkpoint outside the airport.
Alleged methamphetamine trafficking syndicate leader Nigel Iuvale appears in the High Court at Auckland at the start of the Operation Selena jury trial. He is accused of having co-ordinated the illegal smuggling of hundreds of kilograms of the drug with the help of Auckland Airport baggage handlers. Photo / Jason Oxenham
“The hallmark of a good plan is simplicity - less moving parts, less to follow, less chance of confusion because everyone has their roles,” he said. “It was these principles which formed the basis of [the airport-based] criminal syndicate.”
The scheme was so successful that authorities didn’t catch on for months, at which time it is unknown exactly how much methamphetamine leaked through the border. But additional charges were laid after investigators pored over communications between the suspected syndicate members, piecing together details about prior shipments.
“You will not need to determine whether these importations actually occurred,” Nathan said, reminding jurors several times during his opening address today that the guilty pleas of others offered proof that they did occur.
Instead, he said, jurors will have to determine what role defendants Iuvale and Manuel played, if any. Jurors are expected to watch a police interview with Manuel later in the trial in which prosecutors said he admitted to not only being aware of the scheme but to having participated in it. As a result of that participation, Nathan said, he received between $20,000 and $50,000.
Former airport employee Tungane Manuel, right, appears in the High Court at Auckland for the start of the Operation Selena methamphetamine importation trial. Photo / Jason Oxenham
“He had a unique position of trust as a baggage handler who had access to the flight,” Nathan said.
Manuel, who has chosen to represent himself at trial, declined to offer an opening statement of his own today.
Iuvale, meanwhile, is alleged to have directed the scheme from off-site, giving orders through encrypted messaging apps and trusted underlings to distance himself. He did not work at the airport.
Prosecutors said his intercepted communications showed him giving an order after the arrival of at least 10kg of methamphetamine aboard a July 2021 Air New Zealand flight for the shipment to be dropped off “across the street from my olds”. He then named the South Auckland street on which his parents lived, it’s alleged.
Crown prosecutor Matthew Nathan. Photo / Jason Oxenham
He and Manuel are both accused of a failed conspiracy the following October to import “a substantial quantity of methamphetamine in gold tea bags”. The haul, consisting of three boxes, was seized by Malaysian authorities. Iuvale appeared through intercepted communications to discuss the seizure, mentioning gold tea, three days before authorities would announce the bust. Meanwhile, a search of Manuel’s phone showed he took photos of the empty cargo hold when the aeroplane arrived.
Although not part of the current trial, jurors were also told about another major drug importation investigation dubbed Operation Shrute in which Nigel Iuvale and brother Tony Iuvale were caught red-handed sorting a drug shipment that had been detected at Ports of Auckland. The brothers were recently found guilty following a district court trial. During that bust, a storage unit belonging to Ralph Vuletic, described by prosecutors today as Nigel Iuvale’s “right-hand man”, was found to have similar tea gold tea bags hiding meth.
Vuletic pleaded guilty last September to his involvement in both the Selena and Shrute schemes. And over the past two weeks, a slew of others have admitted they were part of the Operation Selena scheme.
They include former baggage handlers Kimela Piukana, Martin Pritchard and Tokofa Paulo-Toroma; married couple Sanlolan Piukana and Sitaleki Maka, who helped store large amounts of cash; and syndicate members Rhys Tualevao and Mairiau Samson, as well as an airport employee who continues to have name suppression.
Defence lawyer Marie Taylor-Cyphers is representing Nigel Iuvale, the alleged head of a criminal syndicate that smuggled methamphetamine into New Zealand via corrupt airport baggage handlers. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Defence lawyer Marie Taylor-Cyphers urged jurors during her brief opening statement today to avoid being prejudiced by the subject matter of methamphetamine and instead focus on whether her client was involved. She suggested the jurors instead think of the meth hauls as bags of salt before evaluating the evidence.
“Are you sure he is involved in the way they say, or might it be someone else entirely?” she said, anticipating questions the jurors may want to ask themselves.
The communications that the Crown relies on are far from clear, she suggested, predicting that it will become clear as the case unfolds why her client has not pleaded guilty alongside all the others.
Prosecutors are expected to begin calling their first witnesses tomorrow when the trial continues before Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith and the jury.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
