Leader of Auckland Airport meth syndicate and corrupt baggage handler jailed

Friday, 15 November 2024

A man with an inoperable brain tumour who organised and used corrupt baggage handlers to import methamphetamine into New Zealand has been sentenced to a lengthy term of imprisonment, with the judge saying his role damaged the border’s reputation.

“You tempted Air New Zealand staff and Menzies [an aviation company] to take bribes to breach the security of the border,” Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith said in sentencing patched King Cobra member Nigel Iuvale.

The plan was simple and worked before authorities caught whiff of what was happening: bypass customs, use corrupt baggage handlers and import large quantities of methamphetamine into the country.

That’s exactly what happened in 2021 through a criminal syndicate running out of Auckland International Airport headed up by Iuvale.

On Friday, Iuvale was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. Corrupt baggage handler Tungane Manuel was sentenced to 11 years’ and six months’ imprisonment.

Iuvale, Manuel and the rest of the syndicate were all arrested in November 2021 after a joint operation between the police and Customs codenamed Operation Selena.

Iuvale used encrypted messaging apps and met up face to face with an Air New Zealand baggage handler, who has suppression, to discuss the importations of methamphetamine from Malaysia and Los Angeles.

That baggage handler would then instruct others, including Manuel, which flights the drugs would be arriving on, to offload the boxes before they were driven off airport grounds and on-supplied to other members of the syndicate.

In January 2021, Iuvale, using the Wickr handle “L1nkag3”, arranged with other defendants for a test bag to come through the airport.

In June, three boxes of methamphetamine, totalling 113kg, were loaded on a Malaysian Airlines flight in Kuala Lumpar.

Once it arrived in New Zealand, three minutes after the plane touched down, 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.

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 Pritchard driving onto the tarmac from the domestic terminal and park up near the plane after it landed.

In October 2021, 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.

Ahead of the proposed October shipment, Iuvale met with a baggage handler at a Gilmore’s shop and spent 45 minutes talking to each other.

“You were instrumental in that plan Mr Iuvale,” Justice Wilkinson-Smith said.

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 were intercepted.

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

At trial, Iuvale was found guilty of conspiring to import a commercial quantity of meth into New Zealand from Malaysia.

Iuvale was also found guilty of possessing a quantity of methamphetamine for supply.

Manuel was found guilty for his part in importing 113kg and 118kg of meth and also conspiring to import the drug from Malaysia.

At the sentencing, Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith said it had been a very large commercial operation, but she didn’t accept the Crown submission that he was the kingpin.

“You were the brains and driver behind the offending… it is apparent to me you were a very intelligent man and could have given more to society,” she said to Iuvale.

There was a hierarchy above Iuvale, but the judge said he was connected to the very top and was the organiser and used his influence to corrupt baggage handlers.

Justice Wilkinson-Smith said the corruption of baggage handlers set a “terrible precedent and could cause all sorts of harm”.

She mentioned how she’d sentenced many of the baggage handlers to terms of imprisonment, which she has not enjoyed.

“… Corruption that led them into custody can lay in part at your door,” she said.

The court heard Iuvale is of Samoan descent and grew up in the Mormon church. He began using substances at the age of 10-11 and moved to cannabis and methamphetamine as a teenager. He relied on loans to feed his addiction and later became addicted to steroids and cocaine.

Since the age of 23, he stopped using methamphetamine as he began having vision problems.

The vision problems were actually the cause of an inoperable brain tumour with a “wait and see” diagnosis.

Iuvale was given slight discounts for his health.

The judge said Manuel’s role was crucial to the syndicate as without him the importations would not have been successful.

“You abused your position as an employee.”

She also believed Manuel was tempted into the offending as he has never been in trouble before.