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WELLINGTON - A convicted murderer who was a player in the Mr Asia drug cartel has been acquitted of cultivating cannabis by a Nelson jury.
Patrick Michael George Norton-Bennett, 58, was found not guilty of cultivating cannabis yesterday in Nelson District Court.
Norton-Bennett was charged after police found 109 cannabis plants early last year near the Pigeon Valley Road property he leased, the Nelson Mail reported today.
Norton-Bennett told the court during trial this week he did not grow the plants and suspected another man who had stayed in a van on the property was responsible.
After the trial yesterday he was returned to police custody to await a parole hearing.
In 1988 Norton-Bennett was convicted of a drug-related murder in the Coromandel and sentenced to life in prison.
He was released on parole in 2001, but had been recalled to prison in July last year because of the cannabis charge.
Norton-Bennett, known as Patrick Bennett, is understood to have been an associate of the Mr Asia kingpin Terry Clark.
The Mr Asia drug syndicate trafficked heroin into New Zealand, Australia and Britain in the 1970s and was believed to be responsible for several murders.
- NZPA
