Drug leader gets 17-year jail term

Press, 14 November 1981, Page 3

Drug leader gets 17-year jail term

PA Auckland The financier and organiser of an Auckland-based drug ring and the woman who distributed the narcotics from her Avondale home were sentenced to 17 years and 12 years jail, respectively, by a judge in the High Court in Auckland yesterday. Appearing before Mr Justice Holland were Colin James Prast, aged 41. a company director, of Hillsborough, and Glenda Faye Menzies, aged 26. ‘ unemployed bank teller, of Avondale. Prast had earlier admitted one count of importing heroin, three counts of importing morphine, one count of conspiring to import heroin, one count of conspiring to supply heroin, and two counts of supplying morphine and heroin. Menzies had been found guilty, after a trial lasting three weeks, on one count of supplying heroin and one of supplying morphine. His Honour said that the case was the ggravest of its kind to have come before the New Zealand courts. Prast was the organiser, the financier, and the brains behind the importing and distribution ring, his Honour said. Motivated by greed, he had set up the organisation with a good deal of skill and ability. He used a courier to travel to the East to purchase drugs, and that man’s function was completed when he left the narcotics in an Air New Zealand aircraft or at a terminal. They were picked up by someone unknown to the courier. Prast then engaged an Air New Zealand employee to take the drugs off the plane and hide them. On Prast’s instructions, menzies uplifted the drugs, hid them again, and then distributed them in the North Island. His Honour said that the expenses were high, but that Prast, completely unconcerned about the human misery caused by his actions, played for high stakes. “It is important that those who attempt to deal in hard drugs know that they will not be treated leniently,” his Honour said. The longest term of imprisonment imposed in New Zealand for a drug offence was 16 years, for a man named Curtis, who was con-

victed on one count of importing heroin. It was not insignificant that Curtis had once been Prast’s partner, his Honour said. His Honour said that not only had Prast been working over a substantial period, he had admitted four specific importations. In September and December last year the courier bought about a kilogram of morphine on Prast’s instructions.

In February this year the courier attempted to buy one pound of morphine but the mission was aborted. In March about a kilogram of heroin and-250g of morphine were bought, and in April 600 g of morphine had been imported. The street value of both drugs at that time was between $lOO and $l5O a gram. “The value of the importations, without the drugs being cut was accordingly $500,000. but the evidence showed that you contemplated reducing those drugs three to one,” his Honour said. • •

"If that was applied throughout, the street value may well have been in the vicinity of $1,500,000." His Honour said it seemed that Prast had successfully hidden his “ill-gotten gains.” That was not surprising for a man who used the names of deceased children to obtain false passports, his Honour said. He sentenced him to 12 years jail on the morphine counts and to 17 years on the heroin counts, the terms to be concurrent. He convicted and discharged him on the charges Qf conspiracy.

Prast will serve his time in the Auckland Prison, at Paremoremo. He will be eligible for parole in seven years.

Mr Barry Wilson, counsel for Prast, said that no decision had been made on an appeal for Prast. Sentencing Menzies to 10 years jail for supplying morphine and 12 years for supplying heroin, the terms to be concurrent, his Honour said that although she had been used by Prast she had acted as his sales manager and directed the dstribution of the drugs. Outside the Court, counsel for Menzies, Mr Graeme Jenkins, said that an appeal would be lodged against her conviction and sentence.