Four facing trial on drug import charge

Press, 28 September 1988, Page 13

Four facing trial on drug import charge

Four men will face trial by jury in the District Court for their alleged involvement in importing temgesic tablets,, worth more than $500,000 on the drug market. Evidence at a preliminary hearing in the District Court yesterday was that the activities of the men and a woman were watched in New Zealand, and in South-east Asia. The tablets were found in the women’s possession, in a brassiere and corset garment said to have been modified to carry items through Customs. After a hearing, in which depositions or statements of evidence of 27 prosecution witnesses were heard, Messrs J. B. Andersen and E. S. F. Holland, Justices of the Peace, held there was sufficient evidence to commit the four for trial by jury in the District Court. The defendants were Rodney James Aldridge, aged 30, a company director (Mr D. C. Ruth), Christopher Patrick Boon, aged 29, a company director (Mr K.. N. Hampton), Dean McArthur Keown, aged 34, a shop owner (Mr P. H. B. Hall), and Murray James Ludemann, aged 34, a company director (Mr A. N. D. Garrett). They were jointly charged with importing a class C controlled drug, buprenorphine (commonly known as temgesics) at Auckland on

July 10. . They were remanded on bail pending a date for their trial. A woman defendant jointly charged with the four men has appeared in Court previously. Most witnesses’ statements of evidence were accepted by defence counsel for yestersday’s hearing, without the witnesses having to attend the court. They included a number of witnesses from Singapore and Bangkok, three of them pharmacy staff. Sergeant W. P. Creasey, who prosecuted, said in his outline of the police case that Boon and Keown left New Zealand to travel to Asia on May 24 this year. On June 4 they flew to Bangkok where they booked into a hotel. On June 6 and 7 they went to a pharmacy in Bangkok. There they allegedly placed an order for about 12,000 buprenorphine tablets. These tablets were listed in New Zealand as a class C controlled drug, but were not a controlled drug in Thailand. Boon placed the order and Keown paid the purchase price of $9OOO in Thai currency. Both then signed a receipt prepared by the pharmacy owner. After the purchase, Boon took a photograph of the pharmacy owner, and

Keown, standing together outside the pharmacy. None of the tablets was obtained at that stage. On June 9 the two ■ travelled to the airport at Bangkok, and Boon handed over a parcel at the left-luggage counter. This box contained 500 buprenorphine tablets and the receipt previously signed by Boon and Keown. Boon wrote on the box, “R. Aldridge to pick up,” the police alleged. They then left for Singapore and arrived back in New Zealand on June 12. On June 31, Aldridge and Boon went to a Christchurch travel firm and booked a return flight to Banagkok. The fare was paid for with Ludemann’s bankcard. Aldridge left New Zealand on July 2 and arrived in Bangkok the next day. Also on July 3, Boon booked tickets for the woman defendant, who appeared earlier, to fly to Singapore and return. These fares also were paid with Ludemann’s bankcard. On July 4, Aldridge picked up the parcel left by Boon and Keown at the left luggage counter at the airport in Bangkok, and later that day he went to the pharmacy where he handed over the receipt that had been in the parcel.

He picked up the buprenorphine that Boon and Keown had ordered, and, shortly after, he made a telephone call to Ludemann in Christchurch. The police alleged that about July 9 Aldridge flew to Singapore with the buprenophine tablets and stayed in the same hotel as the woman. Both then flew from Singapore to Auckland, but had no contact during the flight and travelled separately until clearing Customs in Auckland. The two then flew to Christchurch. Ludemann was at the airport when their plane was to arrive, but left on seeing the police there. The woman and Aldridge were spoken to after they had picked up their luggage. They were taken to the Central Police Station. A search of the woman’s handbag revealed a brassiere and corset that had been modified to carry items through Customs. The garment contained 14,870 tablets of buphrenorphine, , Sergeant Creasey said. The tablets had a street value to drug users of $35 each, making the total value $520,450. Counsel for all four defendants reserved the defence. Mr Hall, however, made submissions that there was insufficient evidence to commit Keown for trial.