Drug dealers jailed and fined $24,000

Press, 24 October 1984, Page 4

Drug dealers jailed and fined $24,000

PA Auckland Jail sentences of 10 years and 6Vz years, plus fines of $24,000 were imposed yesterday on an Auckland couple for drug dealing. In the High Court at Auckland, Mr Justice Casey said ’ he regarded their enterprise as a cold-blooded decision to make money out of drug dealing.’ Wayne Brett Bellini, aged 42, an unemployed painter, had. pleaded guilty to charges of supplying LSD, heroin and possessing cocaine for supply. He had also been convicted after a jury trial of importing heroin.

His Honour jailed Bellini for 10 years and fined him $15,000'. He also ordered that more than $15,000 found in a safety deposit box and in Bellini’s possession be forfeited. - His Honour said Bellini ran the business with considerable skill, helped by able assistance from Christine Ellen Vendetti, with whom Bellini had had a relationship for the, last ,12 years, Vendetti, aged 35, a housewife, had pleaded guilty to supplying LSD and cocaine. She had also been fou&\guilty by a jury of importing heroin.

She was sentenced to 6'/z years jail and fined $9OOO. His Honour said he accepted that she might have been induced to commit the offences because of her relationship with Bellini. With them in the dock was Raymond Daniel Lee, aged 46, a seaman, of Herne Bay, who had been found guilty of importing heroin. His Honour said he treated Lee as a courier only, and sentenced him to 3% years imprisonment. The Court heard that the trio were arrested last year after a big drugs squad operation ihvolving 24-hour surveillance for. five months.