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Five accused have been found guilty of conspiring to supply the class A drug P, or pure methamphetamine, in the sixth week of the Operation Tsunami trial at the High Court in Christchurch.
The verdicts were announced by the jury at 5.15pm today after it had spent two-and-a-half days considering more than a month of evidence and addresses. At one stage, 12 lawyers were involved in the trial, in which evidence was heard from about 70 witnesses.
Two of the accused, Teresa Marie Boyce and Kexi Chen, were found not guilty and were discharged by Justice John Fogarty. Counsel for the pair, Alister Davis and Tim Fournier, had argued that they were end-users of the drug but not dealers.
Justice Fogarty appealed to the members of the public present to remain calm as the verdicts were read. They did remain silent, but outside the court afterwards one of the accused's supporters broke down in tears.
Justice Fogarty remanded the five accused found guilty in custody for sentencing on May 15.
Those convicted of conspiracy were Deborah Jan Gordon-Smith, Xioakang Wang, Jonathan Nuki Lummis Jarden, Boon Lim Chin, and Angie Lee Hurring. Gordon-Smith was also found guilty of supplying the class B drug ecstasy, possessing ecstasy for supply, and possession of cannabis for supply.
Three accused were discharged 10 days ago, after Justice Fogarty heard legal argument at the end of the crown case.
The case resulted from a major undercover police anti-drugs operation targeting methamphetamine dealing. There was evidence of couriers travelling from Auckland to Christchurch with bulk drug supplies. The Crown said intercepted telephone and text messages between the accused showed they were talking in code to disguise the drug deals.
Crown prosecutor Deidre Orchard told the jury of the "great profits" to be made by dealing in the class A drug.
In May, the head of the drug syndicate, Rong-Jun Sui, was sentenced to nine years and four months in prison after admitting his part in the drug dealing operation. At the end of his term he will be deported to China.
Sui, then 21, was caught with drugs and $26,650 in cash when the police raided his home in December 2005 at the end of the two month surveillance operation. They found P with a street value of nearly $180,000 at Sui's home, and copies of the "tick books" he used to keep financial account of his dealings with customers were produced in the High Court at Christchurch at his sentencing.
Justice Fogarty thanked the jury for their long service to the community in the trial and excused them from any further jury service for 10 years.
- NZPA
