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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The New Zealand investigation, dubbed Operation Sampson, was launched after the Australian<\/a> Border Force reported in August 2021 that a 556kg shipment of methamphetamine was discovered hidden inside a large \u201crotary separator\u201d airfreighted to Australia from the Philippines.<\/p>\n A quick review by New Zealand Customs of past importations discovered that an almost identical shipment<\/a> from the same exporter had been cleared to enter New Zealand two months earlier.<\/p>\n Police don\u2019t know exactly how many drugs were hidden inside the machinery when it was dismantled in Auckland.<\/p>\n But they knew from the seized Australian import that the drugs were shipped in individually numbered bags containing 1kg of meth each. <\/p>\n Of the roughly 20 empty bags remaining at the Coles\u2019 Silverdale factory when police searched it, the highest number was 451, hence the 451kg figure. <\/p>\n Brandon Cole agreed to the amount as part of his guilty plea.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n 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 \u201creckless as to the fact\u201d it amounted to indirect proceeds from a crime. <\/p>\n Of the misbegotten money, he transferred $3000 to his mother-in-law\u2019s bank account in South Africa, transferred another $6000 and spent $33,000 on tyres for his company. <\/p>\n Justice Gardiner also noted he was \u201cwilfully blind\u201d to the drug trafficking activity at his Silverdale storage facility, which his son concealed by building a false mezzanine wall. <\/p>\n Despite all that, the judge said, the \u201cextraordinary amount of methamphetamine\u201d that ended up in the community \u201cmakes your case more serious\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cMethamphetamine is a scourge that wrecks many people\u2019s lives,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n 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\u2019 imprisonment. He instead asked for a four-year starting point for the revised charges. <\/p>\n When taking into account mitigating factors such as his guilty plea, he said, it would equate to less than two years \u2013 the threshold at which a judge can consider a prison alternative such as home detention. <\/p>\n Justice Gardiner settled on an end sentence of 12 months\u2019 home detention. <\/p>\n She agreed with the defendant\u2019s lawyer that he appeared genuinely remorseful. <\/p>\n \u201cI think you are unlikely to reoffend,\u201d she said. <\/p>\nA dozen high-specification Harley Davidson motorcycles, 16 other vehicles and more than $400,000 cash were seized after the termination of Operation Samson.<\/p>\n
More than $2.4 million in cash, firearms and drugs were seized as part of Operation Samson.<\/p>\n