An Air New Zealand staff member caught smuggling 20kg of meth kept importing drugs while on bail by switching to a different crew of corrupt baggage handlers, the Herald can reveal.
Sese Vimahi, 48, was a senior baggage handler at Auckland International Airport until he was arrested in May 2020 as the architect of an ingenious - but simple - modus operandi to bypass border security.
A drug supplier in the US would arrange for methamphetamine, packed inside luggage, to be stashed in the bulk hold of the plane in Los Angeles.
Once the flight landed in Auckland, Vimahi’s job was to arrange for Air New Zealand baggage handlers to find the correct bag and remove it from the airport without going through security.
The “rip on, rip off” tactic is common throughout the world, and relies on organised crime syndicates having trusted insiders working at the border.
In the criminal underworld, this is known as having a “door” into the country.
Vimahi was uncovered only because of an error made by the drug mule on the failed import attempt in May 2020.
Romney Fukofuka, an aspiring musician with the stage name Konecs, was able to travel to Los Angeles during New Zealand’s strictest Covid-19 lockdown because he had a US passport.
But on the return trip to Auckland, he took his suitcase - with 19kg of meth inside - on to the plane instead of getting it placed in the bulkhead.
“Toko [Bro] man I made a mistake,” Fukofuka wrote in an encrypted message to an Air NZ baggage handler known as Preacher.
“Toko I carry the kato [bag] with me on board instead of putting at bulk.”
Preacher replied: “Toko f*** man”.
Plan B was hastily made. Once he disembarked the NZ1 flight at Auckland International Airport and cleared the immigration line, Fukofuka was supposed to put the drug-laden suitcase back on to the luggage carousel.
Once the bag went back through to the loading zone, a crew of Air New Zealand baggage handlers could safely remove it from the airport as in the original plan.
After clearing the immigration queue, Fukofuka went into the toilets and sent messages to his partner.
6.09am: I’m f***ed
6.09am: I’m in toilet
6.09am: Heaps of cops
As he exited the toilets to put the suitcase onto the luggage conveyor belt, an officer from Customs asked Fukofuka to please come with him to the search area.
The suitcase was opened. Nothing was inside except two plastic bags weighing a total of 19.4kg, which testing later confirmed as methamphetamine with a purity of 80 per cent.
“I tried to say ‘I thought it was shoes’,” Fukofuka previously told the Herald, “but I knew I was f***ed.”
Fukofuka was arrested and the subsequent investigation, Operation Santana, led to five Air New Zealand baggage handlers being charged with various drug-importing offences. Last year, Fukofuka was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison.
Charges against one of the baggage handlers were dropped, while George Taukolo, Mark Castillo and Daniel Ah Hong pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import a Class A drug and were sentenced to home detention.
The final baggage handler facing prosecution was Preacher, or Sese Vimahi, the architect of the scheme who had recruited his colleagues to help with a promised payment of $20,000 each.
Vimahi maintained his innocence but was convicted at trial of importing a Class-A drug, then sentenced in February to 14 years and seven months in prison.
“I ... have struggled to put this offending in context, because it seems very contradictory to who you are,” said Judge Janey Forrest, noting his previously clean criminal record and the numerous character references given by fellow church members and others in the community.
He was repeatedly described in the letters as a family man and mentor to young people, either through his Christian faith or youth sports.
But Vimahi’s identity could not be revealed until now because he was facing another prosecution - again for smuggling meth through Auckland International Airport.
Despite losing his job at Air New Zealand when he was arrested in Operation Santana, Vimahi still had close ties to a number of baggage handlers who still worked at the airport.
Through this corrupt network, Vimahi was still able to facilitate the importation of methamphetamine on flights from Los Angeles to Auckland despite being on bail.
He was arrested, for the second time, in November 2021 following a joint investigation between the National Organised Crime Group and Customs.
Operation Selena uncovered several different syndicates importing large amounts of drugs into the country through “doors” at the airport and the Port of Auckland.
One of those syndicates was controlled by the King Cobras gang, and allegedly conspired to smuggle nearly 500kg of methamphetamine from Malaysia.
A different network was headed by Vimahi - who other syndicate members called the “Tongan Pablo”, in reference to infamous Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar - and another Auckland resident, who cannot be named yet for legal reasons.
Vimahi can only be identified in relation to Operation Selena now because he pleaded guilty to one count of importing methamphetamine, as well as two counts of conspiring to import the Class-A drug, earlier this month.
Court documents released to the Herald reveal Vimahi continued to direct a trio of Air New Zealand baggage handlers after his arrest in Operation Santana.
Vimahi facilitated two successful meth imports in February and March 2021, 10kg each, in baggage stowed on flights from Los Angeles.
Encrypted messages obtained by the police indicate Vimahi and the baggage handlers were to split a $200,000 payment for each successful import.
But Vimahi could be trusted, according to the messages, because he was a “kurupt churchie man [sic]” and not a gangster.
He is due to be sentenced in the Auckland District Court in June.
At the time of the Operation Selena arrests in late 2021, police and Customs said the investigation had exposed how organised crime recruits “insiders” in the supply chain, in order to circumvent security and border processes.
“Businesses know what their normal looks like - by reporting suspect shipments, situations or interactions to Customs they can help to build further intelligence and stop cross-border crimes,” said Bruce Berry, Customs’ intelligence manager.
“We continue to work closely with industry, including across airports and ports who have been very cooperative with such investigations.”
Air New Zealand had “zero tolerance” for such offending, said Captain David Morgan, who is the airline’s chief operational integrity and safety officer.
“Organised crime impacts many parts of the community and we don’t want it in our workplace. We will continue to work closely with Police, Customs and other relevant agencies to help stamp it out.”
Jared Savage is an award-winning journalist who covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006, and is the author of Gangland and Gangster’s Paradise.
Huge crowds gathered at Christchurch's Bridge of Remembrance and crossed over Auckland's Harbour Bridge on Wednesday.