{"id":619434,"date":"2026-10-03T13:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T13:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/619434\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T13:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T13:14:12","slug":"nepalese-student-anurag-maskey-turned-to-importing-cocaine-when-he-couldnt-get-an-it-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/619434\/","title":{"rendered":"Nepalese student Anurag Maskey turned to importing cocaine when he couldn\u2019t get an IT job"},"content":{"rendered":"

A \u201csaviour\u201d appeared in the form of another Nepalese<\/a> man who offered him financial support.<\/p>\n

The Court of Appeal, in a newly published decision, said it was \u201creasonable to assume that his financial support for Mr Maskey was part of manipulating him in his drug importation operation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Maskey was living in Mt Eden<\/a>, Auckland<\/a> at the time.<\/p>\n

Between January and July 2022, Maskey helped import 1.576kg of cocaine. <\/p>\n

He received or arranged for the receipt of six known packages that contained cocaine, mainly from the United Kingdom but also involving a supplier in Nepal.<\/p>\n

The drug arrived concealed in items such as machinery parts, a motorcycle shock absorber, wood samples, melamine veneers and commercial catalogues.<\/p>\n

For one shipment, Maskey had to extract the hidden cocaine package using an angle grinder. <\/p>\n

Maskey began his drug-importing career as a low-level \u201ccatcher\u201d but took on an organising role after his mentor left the country in April 2022.<\/p>\n

By the time he was caught he was arranging and redirecting consignments, managing their collection and extraction, testing the cocaine\u2019s purity and discussing how it should be cut with other substances before sale. <\/p>\n

When police searched Maskey\u2019s house, they found 219g of cocaine in a ziplock bag, other bags containing a white powder residue, and electronic scales.<\/p>\n

Evidence from his phone showed he had been discussing the importation of drugs with the supplier in Nepal, along with photos of packages and contents, a purity testing kit, and consignment details and tracking numbers. <\/p>\n

Maskey pleaded guilty to five charges of importing cocaine and in March last year he was sentenced in the Auckland District Court<\/a> to six years and four months in prison.<\/p>\n

He appealed against his sentence, and the Court of Appeal<\/a> has now found that he should have received more discount for the \u201cvery human dynamic\u201d at play in his case.<\/p>\n

When he first met his mentor, Maskey was only 22 years old, so an \u201cemerging adult\u201d.<\/p>\n

His fledgling business was clearly struggling and he was vulnerable to exploitation.<\/p>\n

He was intent on winning his associate\u2019s favour to secure financial investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was on that basis that he became involved [in the offending], perhaps initially blind to the serious consequences,\u201d the appeal court justices said. <\/p>\n

The Court of Appeal reduced Maskey\u2019s sentence to five years and seven months in prison.<\/p>\n

He will be deported when he has served his time.<\/p>\n

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME\u2019s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke\u2019s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.<\/p>\n

Join the NZ Herald\u2019s Open Justice team for Case by Case<\/a>, a video and podcast series examining the disputes and decisions making headlines across New Zealand. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u201csaviour\u201d appeared in the form of another Nepalese man who offered him financial support. The Court of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8831,304914,20926,21048,1333,692,35195,702,3112,304915,175718,111,43,139,69,9631,61,19054,1316],"class_list":["post-619434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-an","tag-anurag","tag-cocaine","tag-couldnt","tag-get","tag-he","tag-importing","tag-it","tag-job","tag-maskey","tag-nepalese","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-student","tag-to","tag-turned","tag-when"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619434","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=619434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}