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A drug trafficker who has been described as the “center of the case” against the Comanchero president has been accused of lying for his own benefit by the president’s attorney.
The money and drug laundering trial against Pasilika Naufahu, Connor Michael Tamati Clausen, accountant Wiwini Himi Hakaraia, a media personality who has name suppression, and a woman also with name suppression, began last week in Court Superior Auckland.
All five were arrested following a series of raids in Auckland in April 2019 in which more than $ 3.7 million in assets were seized along with luxury cars, motorcycles, luxury luggage and jewelry.
On Tuesday, a 51-year-old man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, appeared via an audiovisual link from a prison in New Zealand.
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The man, whom the jury has heard is at the “heart of the case,” has admitted the charges against him and was also the cash handler, depositing money in various bank accounts.
Chris McKeen / Stuff
Attorney Andrew Simpson has been jailed for laundering $ 2.2 million for the gang. (file photo)
Last week, Detective Sergeant Damian Espinosa detailed police observations of Naufahu and the man who met in March 2018 at a park in Bucklands Beach.
Hours of intercepted calls have been played to the jury of the man who spoke with attorney Andrew Simpson, who was jailed for laundering $ 2.2 million for the gang, Naufahu and other associates.
When questioned by Naufahu’s attorney, Ron Mansfield, the man said he was a man of God.
“You claim to have faith, but you were involved in the importation and supply of Class A controlled drugs here in New Zealand,” Mansfield said.
However, the man went on to say that he did so because he feared for his life and was relieved to be arrested at the airport by the police.
“I suggest that this story about what we were forced to do is a selfish lie,” Mansfield said.
The man continued to deny that he knew that packages containing methamphetamine were being shipped to his home, and he thought it was equipment for making a cafe.
Mansfield said the man was lying to benefit himself and was in prison for it.
“I’m not an actor, otherwise I’d be in Hollywood,” replied the man.
Lawrence Smith / Stuff
Ron Mansfield, acting on behalf of Pasilika Naufahu, accused the drug trafficker of lying. (file photo)
Earlier on Wednesday, the man said on a visit to Fiji that he collected a suitcase from a hotel that contained drugs, however, the man told the court that he cut up the suitcase and threw it into a nearby river, hoping that they will not find it. by their bosses.
He told them that the drug addicts were on their way to Australia.
That’s how they push me the most to do it. It’s my life or the life of my wife and daughter. I have to do whatever it takes to cooperate, ”he said.
The man said Naufahu was his “boss” in New Zealand and “wanted to do business.”
Naufahu allegedly told the man that he would take 30 percent of the product.
Keywords such as taro and kava were used to describe the combination of methamphetamine and cocaine for importation.
Earlier on Wednesday, the man told the court that his brother introduced him to Naufahu and asked him to do a job for him.
The man said Simpson told him he could make deposits of $ 10,000 at a time.
RICKY WILSON / THINGS
Wiwini Hakaraia and Connor Clausen are also on trial.
“I didn’t doubt him because the lawyer was supposed to give me good advice on legality … I thought it should be correct,” the man said.
The man told the court he used code words like “apples” when referring to phone money transactions with the lawyer and others “in case people would listen.”
“Keeps it safer.”
He admitted to depositing money into accounts and Naufahu or Tyson Daniels indicated to Simpson that they contacted him on a Ciphr phone, the man said.
Ciphr is an encrypted phone device that the Crown says the gang used to communicate with.
The man said he asked the woman, who is on trial for money laundering, when she was “under pressure.”
“I got a message from them to do it asap, so I asked a friend of mine,” he said.
He said he paid the woman around $ 2,000 to help deliver the money.
“I said it jokingly [the money] it could be from a gang or something … the Comanchero ”.
The man estimated that he received around $ 20,000 in total for depositing money into various bank accounts.
Sometimes he would collect the money directly from Simpson and other times the money would show up in his vehicle, the court heard.
CONTROL POINT / RNZ
A court heard that a Comanchero associate drove through Auckland with a million dollars in cash to buy a methamphetamine precursor, before the deal fell through.
THE CHARGES
Naufahu has denied conspiring to import a class A drug, conspiring to supply class B pseudoephedrine and three counts of money laundering.
Clausen is accused of conspiring to supply pseudoephedrine, a class B drug
The media personality is charged with participating in an organized criminal group and two counts of money laundering.
Hakaraia has denied participating in an organized criminal group; two counts of possession of a class A drug for supply, namely cocaine and methamphetamine; and three counts of money laundering.
The woman has also denied having participated in a money laundering transaction.
The trial lasts for four weeks before a jury and Judge Graham Lang.
