{"id":73376,"date":"2025-10-12T06:51:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T06:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/73376\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T06:51:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T06:51:09","slug":"whangarei-teen-grayson-erihe-riwhi-jailed-for-four-years-six-months-over-meth-importation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/73376\/","title":{"rendered":"Whang\u0101rei teen Grayson Erihe-Riwhi jailed for four years, six months over meth importation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Shannon Pitman, Open Justice reporter of \"NZ<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Whangarei<\/p>\n

\nWhang\u0101rei District Court.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Peter de Graaf\n<\/p>\n

A 19-year-old was caught red-handed – with dye-stained palms – after helping uplift almost a kilogram of methamphetamine, landing him behind bars for his role in a drug importation ring.<\/p>\n

Grayson Erihe-Riwhi recently appeared in the Whang\u0101rei District Court for sentencing on one charge of importation of a class A drug, namely methamphetamine.<\/p>\n

The court heard Erihe-Riwhi’s upbringing was steeped in gangs, violence and drugs. After some time away, he had returned to Whang\u0101rei, only to find himself drawn back into the same troubled environment.<\/p>\n

In May 2024, New Zealand Customs intercepted a package imported from Spain, destined for an address in Morningside, Whang\u0101rei.<\/p>\n

Customs detected an anomaly while X-raying the package, which had been declared as clothing garments.<\/p>\n

Inside the box was a backpack and a toilet bag, which they suspected had been tampered with.<\/p>\n

The lining of the backpack revealed layers of foam, which concealed a plastic zip-lock bag containing white crystals. The combined weight was 941g of methamphetamine.<\/p>\n

Police conducted inquiries as to who lived at the address the package was destined for and discovered the recipient’s name was fake.<\/p>\n

However, further inquiries revealed one of the occupants at the address was 30-year-old Liam Lomas.<\/p>\n

On 6 June 2024, police and customs officers carried out a controlled delivery with a placebo package similar in appearance to meth and placed a substance on the package that would leave dye on the recipient’s hands.<\/p>\n

About 1pm, Lomas and Erihe-Riwhi arrived at the Morningside address and uplifted the package.<\/p>\n

A tracking device inside the package alerted police that it was in transit to an address in Tikipunga, Whang\u0101rei.<\/p>\n

Lomas and Erihi-Riwhi took the package to a garage at the rear of the property, dismantled the placebo and then put it into a large plastic container.<\/p>\n

Returning to the vehicle with the container, they reversed out of the driveway, but police intercepted their car.<\/p>\n

Lomas ran to the rear of the property, and threw a Walther pistol and ammunition under the house, and a cellphone over the fence.<\/p>\n

The pair were both found to have dye on their hands and were arrested.<\/p>\n

Some $50,000 in cash was also found under the passenger seat of the car and Erihe-Riwhi had $1900 on him.<\/p>\n

Both were charged with importation of meth, while Lomas also faced possession for supply of ecstasy and meth. He was recently sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment.<\/p>\n

At Erihe-Riwhi’s sentencing, lawyer Mathew Ridgley said his client had seen a chance to make money, without considering the longer-term consequences.<\/p>\n

“He gets the phone call, he won’t say who from, he’s told ‘meet this man, deliver to an address’,” Ridgley told the court.<\/p>\n

“He’s told to go to an address, pick up the package, you bring it back, you drive me here and you drive me there.<\/p>\n

“It was a dumb decision and, in my submission, dumb decisions are seldom made in a vacuum.”<\/p>\n

Ridgley said Erihe-Riwhi was aware of the harm his offending was doing to the community, but Judge Gene Tomlinson said he did not buy that from a 19-year-old.<\/p>\n

Crown lawyer Eilish O’Connor said Erihe-Riwhi knew the extent of what he was getting involved in.<\/p>\n

“This is not impulsive offending,” O’Connor said. “Not only is he involved in transporting, he’s been involved in dismantling the package and repacking it.<\/p>\n

“The driver seems to be – in this case, to put it bluntly – financial gain.”<\/p>\n

Judge Tomlinson acknowledged Lomas was the lead offender in the importation charges and Erihe-Riwhi was doing as he was told by those further up the gang hierarchy.<\/p>\n

“You have been inculpated, meaning you were right in there in that criminal background,” Judge Tomlinson said.<\/p>\n

“You can’t make any other choices, because that’s who you are and that’s what you want to do, and that’s really sad.<\/p>\n

“Were you more mature, older than 25, you would have looked at it and thought ‘That’s a dumb idea’.”<\/p>\n

Erihe-Riwhi was sentenced to four years and six months’ imprisonment.<\/p>\n

* This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Shannon Pitman, Open Justice reporter of Whang\u0101rei District Court. Photo: RNZ \/ Peter de Graaf A 19-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-73376","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73376","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=73376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}