Alleged kingpin and baggage handler on trial for meth imports

Wednesday, 19 June 2024

Two men who the Crown says were part of a syndicate operating out of Auckland Airport are on trial.

Nigel Iuvale is the alleged king-pin while Tungane Manuel is one of the baggage handlers the Crown says aided in retrieving the methamphetamine airside.

Both men have pleaded not guilty and are on trial at the High Court at Auckland.

The hallmark of any good plan is simplicity and that’s what the Crown said occurred in 2021 when a large quantity of methamphetamine was imported into New Zealand with the help of baggage handlers on the ground at Auckland Airport.

“[The syndicate were] simplistic, ingenious and remarkably successful in its plan to evade authorities,” prosecutor Matthew Nathan told the jury in opening.

The Crown allege Nigel Iuvale was the kingpin of the syndicate and was part of organising imports and then directing others. He’s charged with possessing methamphetamine for supply and also conspiring to import a commercial quantity of the Class A drug from Malaysia into New Zealand.

Baggage handler Tungane Manuel is also charged with the conspiracy and is further charged with importing about 113kg into New Zealand on June 8 and 118kg on July 31, 2021. Both have pleaded not guilty.

A number of baggage handlers and others connected to the syndicate have already pleaded guilty to a range of charges.

They were all arrested in November 2021 after a joint operation between the police and Customs codenamed Operation Selana.

On Wednesday, Iuvale and Manuel’s trial began at the High Court at Auckland where prosecutor Matthew Nathan outline the Crown case to the jury.

He told the jury it took a series of investigative breaks for police and Customs to find out who was involved and linked phone data to the main players and the imports.

Nathan told the crown throughout 2021, a baggage handler, who cannot be named, received instructions from Iuvale and then subsequently directed other baggage handlers via encrypted messaging applications to remove shipments of methamphetamine from recently arrived aircraft.

The Class A drug was then driven off airport grounds and supplied to a range of distributors.

Two others involved in the syndicate were “cash stashers”. The money they stored would then be provided to pay the syndicate, Nathan said.

In January 2021, a “test run” was conducted to see if the simplistic plan of using baggage handlers to retrieve methamphetamine from planes could be done without the risk of being discovered, the Crown said.

The Crown allege Iuvale, using the Wickr handle “L1nkag3”, sent baggage handler Kimela Piukana a picture of the bag tag and said the origin of the flight was Los Angeles.

Moving to June. The Crown says three boxes of methamphetamine weighing a total of 113kg were loaded on a Malaysian Airlines flight in Kuala Lumpar.

Once it arrived in New Zealand, three minutes after the plane arrived, Manuel was called and then removed the methamphetamine from the plane before it was distributed to members of the syndicate.

In early July, a flight from Los Angeles arrived where baggage handler Martin Pritchard retrieved a bag containing at least 10kg of meth.

That same morning, a number of messages went back and forth between members of the syndicate.

“We say Nigel began directing what to do with the meth, he requested images of the drugs,” Nathan told the jury.

Arrangements were subsequently made for the bag to be dropped off “across the road from my olds” and Iuvale’s right-hand man, Ralph Vuletic, picked them up in his silver car.

Later that month, three boxes containing 118kg of meth were loaded onto a Malaysian Airline flight bound for Auckland.

CCTV captured baggage handlers Manuel and Pritchard near the plane after it landed and Manuel retrieving the boxes from the hold, the Crown said.

The fourth and final charge the jury will have to consider is in relation to both defendants alleged role in a conspiracy to import a large commercial quantity of the drug in October 2021.

Nathan told the jury Malaysian authorities intercepted a large amount of methamphetamine concealed in gold tea bags before it left for Auckland.

Those tea bags were “eerily” similar to tea bags found inside a storage unit months prior, Nathan said.

Nathan told the jury Iuvale had previously pleaded guilty to possession of nearly 30kg of methamphetamine that was imported from Tonga in a container with frozen taro and cassava. The import was intercepted and police replaced the meth with rock salt before a controlled delivery took place.

When police executed a search warrant they found gold tea bags at a storage unit.

Iuvale was acquitted of the importation charge.

But Nathan told the jury there was evidence ahead of the alleged October conspiracy, Iuvale met with a baggage handler at a Gilmore’s shop and spent 45 minutes talking to each other.

Potentially before the baggage handler even left the car park, he called Manuel which the Crown allege was one of the first steps in the conspiracy.

The following day the baggage handler arranged for another member of the syndicate to bring $26,000 to his home for Manuel to pick it up.

Later in October, three boxes packed with gold tea bags are taken to the airport in Malaysia, but they’re intercepted.

Manuel was then told the importation “didn’t make it on”.

When the flight arrived, Manuel took photos on his phone of what appears to be empty cargo.

Iuvale, in a recorded call, is heard saying there’s a possible need for the methamphetamine to be sent from another country and references gold tea.

Nathan said the Crown says this showed clear knowledge and involvement in that conspiracy as news of the interception wasn’t made public until November.,

“We say Mr Manuel clearly aided in the importation and was minded to aid in the conspiracy to import through his role as a baggage handler. He had a unique position of trust, had access to the flight, take it directly from the hold and give it to someone else for distribution,” Nathan said.

Whereas Iuvale directed, organised and exercised control over the syndicate, the Crown allege.

Manuel spoke with police after his arrest and the Crown said made a number of admissions.

The jury will watch an interview with him where he told police he was not only aware of plans to import methamphetamine, but how he took part in the syndicate and received somewhere between $20,000 and $50,0000.

Manuel, who is representing himself, did not make an opening statement to the jury.

Iuvale’s lawyer, Marie Taylor-Cyphers, asked the jury to listen carefully to the evidence and the accuracy of it.

“Can you be sure he’s involved in the way they say, or might it be someone else entirely?”

Taylor-Cyphers suggested to the jury they think of the methamphetamine as bags of salt, as the Class A drug can carry prejudice.

The trial before Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith and a jury continues.