LSD 'smuggled in Harry Potter book'

LSD 'smuggled in Harry Potter book'


SARAH HARVY
Last updated 15:59 30/09/2013


New Zealand Customs officers found LSD on the spine of a Harry Potter book, a court heard today.
A Latvian man who was extradited to New Zealand to face drugs charges smuggled LSD into New Zealand in a Harry Potter book, and ecstasy in large granite statues, the Crown says.

Rokas Karpavicius, faces eight charges - one of importing class A controlled drug LSD, four of importing class B controlled drug ecstasy, one of conspiracy to import a class A controlled drug and two of money laundering.

He is appearing before Justice Graham Lang and a jury, for trial in the High Court in Auckland this week. Karpavicius has pleaded not guilty to all eight charges.

The Crown says Karpavicius imported LSD and ecstasy to a syndicate in New Zealand who would then distribute the drugs before syphoning the money from the drugs back out of the country.

In his opening address to the jury today Crown prosecutor Michael Walker said the case was complex but came down to one crucial point - that Karpavicius' fingerprints were found on the Harry Potter book containing LSD intercepted by New Zealand Customs on April 28, 2008. The LSD was in the spine of the book.

Walker said it was a "significant piece of the puzzle" as to why Karpavicius was facing charges of importing and conspiring to import drugs into New Zealand.

The starting point of this case was in Australia in February 2008 when police there received information about drugs being sent to Australia in large granite statues, he said.

It became clear that similar statues had been imported into New Zealand on four occasions - March 2006, December 2006, June 2007 and December 2007.

This information was handed to New Zealand police.

Walker said as a result of the information from Australian police, New Zealand police began monitoring conversations between New Zealander Ronald Terrence Brown and his associates, including a man with a strong European accent police say is Karpavicius.

The group also used iChat and email to communicate. The phone calls would be played in court during the trial and it would be "crystal clear" what the group were planning, he said.

Walker said Brown had since been convicted in relation to the drugs found in the statues. Brown was Karpavicius' right-hand man who would pick up and distribute the drugs in New Zealand.

The final charge relates to money laundering.

Walker said one of the major problems the drug syndicate faced was how to get the money out of New Zealand. Money laundering was a "plain reality" for those involved in drug smuggling.


The syndicate used electronic transactions and human cash couriers, he said.

Several times associates of Karpavicius came to New Zealand to syphon money out of the country. In one case, in 2007, two close associates of Karpavicius travelled to New Zealand to send money back overseas on behalf of the drug syndicate, he said.

They were supplied with more than $1 million in cash which they sent out of the country. This was payment for the drugs in the granite statues, Walker said.

References to the "biccy tin" would be made throughout the trial, he said.

The Crown says the tin is an ASB Bank vault that police found after warrants were served. In it were four bundles of NZ$100 notes - a total of $104,000 - and several passports.

The Crown will call just two witnesses, both of whom are police detectives.

In his opening address defence lawyer Graeme Newell said the heart of the case was whether the jury could draw "inference" from circumstantial evidence that would be presented by the Crown.

The defence had agreed to many facts, including that Karpavicius was the European man on the intercepted communications, Newell said.

"The focus in this trial will be on the evidence presented by the prosecution and what that evidence actually proves."

The trial, before a jury of four men and eight women, is expected to last at least a week.

- © Fairfax NZ News