The charge, for which Ramirez-Alfonso was sent to prison, was linked to her involvement in the importation of 1.8 kg of cocaine - she had supplied a residential address for its receipt in three separate packages between October 2019 and December 2021.
She received $5000 as well as “another cash sum” which she claimed was a lesser amount for the assistance she provided, the court said.
Ramirez-Alfonso was sentenced last July to three years and six months’ imprisonment and issued with a deportation liability notice.
$200,000 in cash seized as part of Operation Mist. Photo / Police
The High Court accepted she had played a lesser role in the offending, and handed out a sentence that reflected her reduced role in the operation, her “initial naivety” and her lack of insight into the amount of drugs being imported.
From a starting point of five years and six months, the court arrived at the end sentence, taking into account personal factors, the disproportionate impact of imprisonment in this country and the guilty plea.
In rejecting the application for discharge without conviction, the court found the risk of deportation was not out of all proportion to the offending, as it was a “predictable risk” faced by offenders in Ramirez-Alfonso’s position.
The Court of Appeal agreed with the High Court’s categorisation of the offending as serious, and accepted a conviction was nonetheless “a proportional and unsurprising consequence” of this type of offending.
Ramirez-Alfonso argued her offending was the result of “naivete and exploitation” and asked the Supreme Court to give these concepts further consideration.
She submitted that the High Court accepted she was drawn into the offending by her “friends”, and exploited in her occupation as a farm worker and, consequently, vulnerable to manipulation.
She also submitted that the Court of Appeal did not properly engage with exploitation as a factor mitigating offender culpability.
In this case, that exploitative context included the applicant’s relative isolation in this country, leading to significant vulnerability, the Supreme Court noted in its decision.
A heat exchanger had around 1kg of cocaine hidden inside. Photo / Police
Justices Joe Williams, Stephen Kós and Forrest Miller said while exploitation and vulnerability in the context of migrant labour was potentially a matter of general and public importance, defining what that meant was, generally speaking, “intensely factual”.
“We are not satisfied that, on these facts, the issue is squarely raised,” they said.
Accordingly, they saw no risk of a miscarriage of justice and did not consider it necessary in the interests of justice to hear and determine the proposed appeal.
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.
