{"id":181401,"date":"2025-12-13T05:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T05:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/181401\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T05:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T05:31:08","slug":"auckland-petrol-station-shooter-caught-smuggling-drugs-into-paremoremo-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/181401\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland petrol station shooter caught smuggling drugs into P\u0101remoremo prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

Corrections officers stepped in to end the visit and search Toleafoa. They found 6.4g of cannabis, 1.4g of cocaine and 15.2g of MDMA. <\/p>\n

The inmate was later charged with possession of cannabis and possession of cocaine, which carry maximum possible sentences of three and six months\u2019 imprisonment. <\/p>\n

But authorities also charged him with possession of ecstasy for supply \u2013 punishable by up to 14 years\u2019 imprisonment. <\/p>\n

It was the same maximum punishment Toleafoa faced in August<\/a> last year, after pleading guilty to the March 2023 close-range shooting of Shum-Kuen-Ip, who was left permanently disabled<\/a> \u2013 bullet fragments are still lodged in his brain. <\/p>\n

The two did not know each other, but exchanged words after both showed up with friends at a Gull petrol station in New Lynn. <\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice at the incident at the Gull New Lynn near the intersection of Clark St and Portage Rd. Photo \/ Hayden Woodward<\/p>\n

After the minor confrontation, Shum-Kuen-Ip returned to the driver\u2019s seat of his car. <\/p>\n

Toleafoa, meanwhile, retrieved a rifle from his vehicle and walked back over to the victim. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not going to use that, you b****,\u201d Shum-Kuen-Ip allegedly said, according to Toleafoa, before the defendant opened fire. <\/p>\n

Toleafoa fled the scene, but was arrested after a brief but high-profile manhunt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The victim now needs 24-hour care, his mother said during last year\u2019s sentencing hearing in the Auckland District Court. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy son must suffer for the rest of his life,\u201d she said, before quoting her son: \u201cYou have robbed me from ever being normal again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JudgeJudge Anna Fitzgibbon extended Russell Falani Junior Toleafoa’s sentence to five years and eight months’ imprisonment. Photo \/ Natalie Slade<\/p>\n

Judge Anna Fitzgibbon sentenced Toleafoa to five years and two months\u2019 imprisonment. <\/p>\n

Toleafoa waved to a large group of family members recently as he again stood in the dock before Judge Fitzgibbon, although this time in the North Shore District Court. <\/p>\n

Lawyer Annabel Ives, who represented him on the shooting charge too, emphasised her client had not yet been sentenced for the shooting when the drug-smuggling attempt took place. <\/p>\n

Had he been charged sooner, it could have been addressed at last year\u2019s hearing, when he was granted discounts for youth and previous good character, she noted. <\/p>\n

Since then, Toleafoa had been \u201cdoing quite well in prison\u201d, Ives said, explaining he had committed to a one-year welding course so that he could positively contribute to society when released. <\/p>\n

Judge Fitzgibbon ordered the latest sentence be stacked on top of the previous one, resulting in a combined sentence of five years and eight months. <\/p>\n

Craig Kapitan<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Corrections officers stepped in to end the visit and search Toleafoa. They found 6.4g of cannabis, 1.4g of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[27309,74,4496,51,6128,4057,9525,115258,20926,1757,106,296,3234,111,43,139,69,193,22126,115257,8442,5763,61484,7819,14347,10890,13655,24002],"class_list":["post-181401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-added","tag-after","tag-attempt","tag-auckland","tag-bars","tag-behind","tag-caught","tag-clumsy","tag-cocaine","tag-drugs","tag-head","tag-into","tag-months","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-other","tag-petrol","tag-premoremo","tag-prison","tag-sentence","tag-shooter","tag-shooting","tag-smuggle","tag-smuggling","tag-station","tag-stranger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}