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Two men found guilty of supplying cocaine had their jail terms reduced.
Two of the three men involved in supplying nearly a kilogram of cocaine to an undercover police officer had their sentences reduced because they were under duress by a Colombian drug cartel.
Juan Sebastián Galicia Romero and Arley Andrés Narváez Chamorro were charged with supplying, selling and possessing cocaine.
They were arrested along with a third man, Hemant Patel, who sold the cocaine to a police officer in a public parking lot in Lower Hutt in 2017.
Patel pleaded guilty to supplying the Class A drug and was sentenced to eight and a half years in jail.
Narváez Chamorro and Galicia Romero are Colombian citizens who were refugees in New Zealand.
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They both pleaded guilty but disputed some of the facts of the case.
As part of the mitigating circumstances for sentencing, both said they were under duress after being contacted by a Colombian drug cartel and threats against their families.
Patel had arranged to meet the officer in a parking lot in the Petone suburb in December 2017. Galicia Romero drove the three men there and then went to a nearby store while Narváez Chamorro remained in the car.
They appealed their initial sentences of four years and 10 months for Narváez Chamorro and of three years and six months for Galicia Romero. They said the sentences were manifestly excessive and that the judge should have found lower starting points before applying greater discounts based on the coercion the two men were subjected to.
Judge Christine Grice in Wellington Superior Court said there was an error in the summary of facts relied on by the sentencing judge who thought Galicia Romero had been present when the drug transaction took place. Instead, he had been shopping nearby.
He said the starting point for Galicia Romero was too high and, taking into account the discounts, his jail sentence should be reduced to eight and a half months of home detention.
Grice said that left a disparity between the two men’s sentences and reduced Nárvez Chamorro to three and a half years in jail.
