Canadian drug mule Priya Mohan appears for sentencing at Manukau District Court. Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n
Customs, which uncovered the scheme upon flagging Mohan at Auckland International Airport, estimated the stash would have been worth about $4.55 million had the drugs reached the streets. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf I had known, I wouldn\u2019t have done this,\u201d Mohan told a pre-sentence report writer after admitting she was a drug mule but maintaining that she had been duped into the role. <\/p>\n
Judge Ngaroma Tahana was not sympathetic to her claimed naivety. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou must have known something was not right when you were offered $10,000 and told to meet up with a stranger in the hotel car park,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would have thought … [it] raises some pretty big red flags.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rampant suspicions ignored<\/p>\n
It appears not to have been the first time Mohan ignored red flags. <\/p>\n
Messages extracted from her phone show she flew to Ireland with two pieces of mystery luggage in December. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd for sure I\u2019m taking arts frames and what not to Dublin, right?\u201d she asked handler Miquel R, whose identity remains unknown. \u201cI\u2019m just not trynna get bagged for anything illegal. Can\u2019t put my freedom at risk like that. Hope you understand.\u201d<\/p>\n
She followed up: \u201cSo just in case I\u2019m asked at the airport what am I carrying in the suitcases what do I say?\u201d<\/p>\n
On December 11, Mohan voiced her suspicions again. <\/p>\n
\u201cA lady on the news got caught for transporting drugs from Canada to Switzerland this is why I keep asking for the reassurance to make sure that it is art and not illegal substances in the bag,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n
Toronto city employee Priya Mohan tried to smuggle 15kg of methamphetamine into New Zealand but was thwarted when Customs searched her bag upon arrival at Auckland International Airport. Photo \/ Customs<\/p>\n
Two days later, she added: \u201cWhy do you guys hire people to take these luggages instead of you guys taking them? Just a curiosity that\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miquel R eventually answered the questions, albeit somewhat tersely. <\/p>\n
\u201cHello, my partners are very busy dealing with people going and coming back so we\u2019re trying to get everything sorted for you and accommodate but to be answering questions throughout the day that doesnt pertain to the trip becomes a little too much,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n
\u201cJust as before, this is not your first time going with us. Nothing has changed. Everything is still the same. To answer this question, we do take them. However we only do it 3 times a year each. But there is only so much of us. Hiring people saves us money. And makes everybody money.\u201d<\/p>\n
The handler then instructed Mohan on what to tell authorities when she arrived in Ireland – that she was there for sightseeing – and not to declare anything. <\/p>\n
It appears to have worked, and the New Zealand offer came just days later. <\/p>\n
In preparation for that trip, Mohan was advised to tell Customs she had flown to New Zealand to see reggae artist Sam Garret perform at the festival and to do a little sightseeing. <\/p>\n
Canadian citizen Priya Mohan was arrested at Auckland International Airport after Customs officers found 14 individually vacuum-sealed packages containing 15kg of methamphetamine in her suitcase. She’s now been sentenced to prison. Photo \/ Customs<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the declaration form it ask if I know what\u2019s in my baggage,\u201d Mohan wrote after arriving. \u201cIf they do [ask] what do I say? I checked off yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miquel R responded: \u201cYes you do. Your clothes and bags, same answers as always. Just message once outside the airport. Our guy is at the hotel.\u201d<\/p>\n
But she didn\u2019t ever get to the hotel. <\/p>\n
During the search by Customs, she came clean that the bag wasn\u2019t hers, court documents state. During a subsequent interview, she explained that she had taken an Uber to Toronto\u2019s Adams Park, where a man in a ski mask put the luggage in the boot of the vehicle, then travelled straight to the airport for the flight. <\/p>\n
She had met Miquel a year earlier at a party and did not know the identity of the person she was supposed to meet in New Zealand, she said. <\/p>\n
\u2018Stupidity, blind-eye syndrome\u2019<\/p>\n
During last week\u2019s hearing, defence lawyer Shane Tait pointed out that the vacuum-packed drugs were only \u201cprimitively disguised\u201d in the suitcase, suggesting his client didn\u2019t know she was risking her freedom. <\/p>\n
But he acknowledged his client suffered \u201cnaivety, stupidity and the old blind-eye syndrome\u201d. He suggested she could be characterised as a \u201creckless courier\u201d, having ought to have known better even if she didn\u2019t. <\/p>\n
Defence lawyer Shane Tait attends a 2019 hearing in the High Court at Auckland. Photo \/ Sam Hurley<\/p>\n
At the time, she had been having a hard time with her mother and was \u201cmotivated to make a quick buck\u201d so she could move out of the family home, the judge was told. She had no prior criminal record, in Canada or New Zealand, Tait noted. <\/p>\n
Crown prosecutor Mafi Taumoepeau asked the judge to consider a 14-year starting point, pointing out that the drug smuggling operation appeared to be significant even if Mohan wasn\u2019t a major player in the syndicate. <\/p>\n
The defence argued 14 years would be \u201cmanifestly excessive\u201d for the circumstances. While Tait sought a starting point of 10-and-a-half years, he wouldn\u2019t be in a position to complain, he said, if the judge opted for a compromise of 12 years. <\/p>\n
The judge concurred, allowing the compromise starting point before factoring 50% in combined reductions for her quick guilty plea, previous good character, youth, background and the extra difficulty of being a foreign national in a New Zealand prison with no local support network. <\/p>\n
Judge Tahana acknowledged that Mohan reported an upbringing marred by violence and the involvement of Canada\u2019s version of Oranga Tamariki. The judge said she accepted that the defendant\u2019s role was \u201cunsophisticated and under the direction of others\u201d. <\/p>\n
Ngaroma Tahana speaks at Tapuaekura Marae in August 2022. She was appointed to a Manukau District Court bench the following year. Photo \/ Mead Norton<\/p>\n
\u201cNonetheless, you assisted …\u201d she said, reiterating that she did not accept Mohan\u2019s claimed ignorance about the drugs. <\/p>\n
\u201c… His response that you were to say it was your clothing in the suitcase demonstrates to me that you were prepared to be dishonest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mohan wept as the sentence was imposed. But she didn\u2019t appear to have genuine remorse and so wouldn\u2019t receive an additional discount for that, the judge said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no sincere acknowledgement of the harm methamphetamine causes the community,\u201d she explained, describing Mohan\u2019s apology letter instead as self-serving. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou appear to focus more on the unfortunate and regrettable position you now find yourself in.\u201d<\/p>\n