Man jailed for 9 1/2 years after mobile drug lab bust

A Waipukurau man was yesterday jailed for 9 1/2 years for methamphetamine making about 18 months ago.

Ehau Michael Hapuku Te Nahu, 42, was sentenced by Justice Ron Young in the High Court in Napier.

He was the last of nine people to be dealt with as a result of a police surveillance operation, named Operation Hee-Haw, which swept into action after former Wellington rugby league representative Kelly Makoare was caught at the wheel of a vehicle containing a mobile drug laboratory on October 30, 2003.

Despite the loss of the equipment, Te Nahu wasted no time getting back into business, the judge noted, and according to evidence at his trial was back making drugs within a fortnight.

Audio tapes of events in Te Nahu's home revealed the purchase of precursor drugs from others who visited the house and the making of methamphetamine on almost a daily basis from November 12 to when the police moved in again nine days later.

Defence counsel Bill Calver contended Te Nahu was not at the "top" of the network, but also that while his client was a gang member, it was not a gang enterprise.
Crown prosecutor Jonathon Krebs sought a sentence "closer to 15 years".

- NZPA