As a result, he appeared in the High Court at Auckland today for sentencing on charges of money laundering, punishable by up to seven years’ imprisonment, and permitting a premises to be used for the purposes of methamphetamine supply, which carries a 10-year maximum sentence.
Both sides agreed home detention was an option for Justice Dani Gardiner to consider in light of the revised charges.
His “very passive role” did not involve direct involvement in distributing the drug, said defence lawyer Katie Hogan KC, describing her client as someone who had “previous exemplary character”.
He had been earning a legitimate living and contributing to society since moving to New Zealand from South Africa, she said.
Both Coles were arrested in July 2022, after 451kg of high-quality methamphetamine – with a street value ranging anywhere from $27 million to $100 million – had already dissipated into the community through the criminal underground market.
Hells Angels member Brandon St John Cole pleaded guilty in 2022 to multiple charges involving drug trafficking and money laundering. He was arrested after a year-long investigation dubbed Operation Samson.
New Zealand law enforcement, operating off a tip from Australian authorities, was about a year too late to catch anyone red-handed with the stash.
They did find plenty of other evidence, including $2.4 million in cash stuffed into a West Auckland storage unit, a false wall at a North Shore storage unit leased by both Coles for their tyre business, and numbered plastic bags testing positive for meth residue.
The New Zealand investigation, dubbed Operation Sampson, was launched after the Australian Border Force reported in August 2021 that a 556kg shipment of methamphetamine was discovered hidden inside a large “rotary separator” airfreighted to Australia from the Philippines.
A quick review by New Zealand Customs of past importations discovered that an almost identical shipment from the same exporter had been cleared to enter New Zealand two months earlier.
Police don’t know exactly how many drugs were hidden inside the machinery when it was dismantled in Auckland.
But they knew from the seized Australian import that the drugs were shipped in individually numbered bags containing 1kg of meth each.
Of the roughly 20 empty bags remaining at the Coles’ Silverdale factory when police searched it, the highest number was 451, hence the 451kg figure.
Brandon Cole agreed to the amount as part of his guilty plea.
A dozen high-specification Harley Davidson motorcycles, 16 other vehicles and more than $400,000 cash were seized after the termination of Operation Samson.
Forensic accounting also uncovered that the younger Cole had paid nearly $32,000 cash for a 2020 model Harley-Davidson Softail Low Rider motorbike in September 2021, and paid $50,000 in rolled-up bills for an SUV with plates he changed to read OGBOSS.
Police traced an additional $877,640 that was laundered by giving cash to businesses linked to co-defendants Marciano Fritz and Michael Vincent Jan Fritz. Both Fritzes have also pleaded guilty to money laundering and are set for sentencing next month.
In court today, it was noted that the elder Cole had also received about $104,000 in laundered money into his bank account from the Fritzes. He acknowledged as part of his plea that he was “reckless as to the fact” it amounted to indirect proceeds from a crime.
Of the misbegotten money, he transferred $3000 to his mother-in-law’s bank account in South Africa, transferred another $6000 and spent $33,000 on tyres for his company.
Justice Gardiner also noted he was “wilfully blind” to the drug trafficking activity at his Silverdale storage facility, which his son concealed by building a false mezzanine wall.
Despite all that, the judge said, the “extraordinary amount of methamphetamine” that ended up in the community “makes your case more serious”.
“Methamphetamine is a scourge that wrecks many people’s lives,” she said.
Crown prosecutor Conrad Purdon said that, had the elder Cole been convicted of the original methamphetamine importation and supply charges, he would have advocated for a sentence of 15 to 20 years’ imprisonment. He instead asked for a four-year starting point for the revised charges.
More than $2.4 million in cash, firearms and drugs were seized as part of Operation Samson.
When taking into account mitigating factors such as his guilty plea, he said, it would equate to less than two years – the threshold at which a judge can consider a prison alternative such as home detention.
Justice Gardiner settled on an end sentence of 12 months’ home detention.
She agreed with the defendant’s lawyer that he appeared genuinely remorseful.
“I think you are unlikely to reoffend,” she said.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
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