{"id":287634,"date":"2026-02-17T03:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T03:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/287634\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T03:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T03:06:07","slug":"jonah-lomus-brother-john-lomu-pleads-guilty-to-amended-drug-charge-awaits-sentencing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/287634\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonah Lomu\u2019s brother John Lomu pleads guilty to amended drug charge, awaits sentencing"},"content":{"rendered":"

NZ Herald<\/p>\n

16 Feb, 2026 11:44 PMQuick Read<\/p>\n

Subscribe to listenAccess to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.Subscribe now<\/p>\n

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John Lomu is due to go on trial at the Manukau District Court on February 23, 2026, alongside Silila Vaivai, 37.<\/p>\n

The brother of All Blacks legend Jonah Lomu has admitted a drugs charge.<\/p>\n

Lomu\u2019s younger brother, John Makatoa Lomu, 49, was due to go on trial at the Manukau District Court on Monday, alongside Silila Vaivai, 37. <\/p>\n

\n The pair had been initially charged with importing and possessing methamphetamine, dating
\n back to 2023.\n <\/p>\n

But John Lomu\u2019s lawyer, Jasper Rhodes, told the Herald Lomu pleaded guilty \u201cafter the charges were amended to one charge\u201d.<\/p>\n

Vaivai admitted a charge of importing an unknown amount of a controlled drug and Lomu pleaded guilty to possessing an unknown amount of a controlled drug.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NZ Herald 16 Feb, 2026 11:44 PMQuick Read Subscribe to listenAccess to Herald Premium articles require a Premium…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5811,133430,27495,8136,31468,32294,3401,1757,3368,42,5126,159965,3223,159967,159966,43,3367,9764,61,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-287634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-admitted","9":"tag-amended","10":"tag-awaits","11":"tag-blacks","12":"tag-brother","13":"tag-charge","14":"tag-drug","15":"tag-drugs","16":"tag-guilty","17":"tag-headlines","18":"tag-john","19":"tag-jonah","20":"tag-legend","21":"tag-lomu","22":"tag-lomus","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-pleads","25":"tag-sentencing","26":"tag-to","27":"tag-top-news","28":"tag-top-stories","29":"tag-topnews","30":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287634","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=287634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}