{"id":579968,"date":"2026-08-25T15:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T15:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/579968\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T15:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T15:20:14","slug":"former-southland-captain-busted-after-buying-cocaine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/579968\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Southland captain busted after buying cocaine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A former international and Super Rugby player was caught buying drugs when police eavesdropped on his phone.<\/p>\n<p>Tony Andrew Lamborn, 34, appeared in the Hastings District Court on Tuesday for possession of cocaine.<\/p>\n<p>He was fined $2000 by Judge Bernadette Arapere.<\/p>\n<p>After a season with North Otago in the Heartland Championship, Lamborn debuted as a professional rugby player for the Hawke\u2019s Bay Magpies in 2013 and later played for the Hurricanes and the Blues in Super Rugby.<\/p>\n<p>He also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.odt.co.nz\/sport\/rugby\/re-signed-lamborn-now-able-to-play-at-100-pbxv3l9c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">played for Southland<\/a> for several seasons, including a stint as captain.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>With an American-born father, he also played 23 tests for the US men\u2019s national team, the Eagles, including at the 2019 Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Contacted today, Lamborn said it was a case of \u201clesson learned &#8230; it\u2019s as simple as that\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI need to act my age and grow up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>According to a police summary of facts, Lamborn was caught as part of an investigation into the supply and sale of cocaine in Hawke\u2019s Bay, carried out this year by the National Organised Crime Group.<\/p>\n<p>They obtained warrants authorising them to intercept communications devices, including Lamborn\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>On April 30, he twice called a dealer. The first call went to voicemail but the second was answered.<\/p>\n<p>During the call, Lamborn arranged to buy 6g of cocaine and have it delivered to him at a bar in Havelock North.<\/p>\n<p>Later the same afternoon, he called another person, whose identity is unknown, and confirmed he had taken some \u201ctreats\u201d, which police believed referred to the cocaine he obtained earlier.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring the call, the defendant discussed a hunting trip he was going on the following day with other associates,\u201d the police summary said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe defendant advised that he was bringing the \u2018treats\u2019 on the hunting trip.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On May 1, Lamborn called the same unknown associate and confirmed he was at an airport on his way to the hunting trip.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe confirmed that he had carried the \u2018treats\u2019 through airport security and had brought them along on the trip.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt one point during the call, the defendant referred to himself as a \u2018reliable mule\u2019, gloating about having transported drugs through security before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When questioned by police, he told them he had bought cocaine from the dealer but was \u201ca user not a supplier\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> <img alt=\"\" data-tb-thumbnail=\"true\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787671214_962_copy-of-open-justice-logo.webp\" width=\"1070\" height=\"480\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"narrow-format\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"color:transparent;object-fit:cover;display:block;box-sizing:border-box;padding:0px;width:100%;height:100%\"\/><img alt=\"\" data-tb-thumbnail=\"true\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787671214_962_copy-of-open-justice-logo.webp\" width=\"1070\" height=\"480\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"wider-format\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"color:transparent;object-fit:cover;display:block;box-sizing:border-box;padding:0px;width:100%;height:100%\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former international and Super Rugby player was caught buying drugs when police eavesdropped on his phone. Tony&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-579968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579968","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=579968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}