Pubdate: Thu, 15 Jan 2004
Source: Otago Daily Times (New Zealand)
Copyright: Allied Press Limited, 2004
Contact:  http://www.stuff.co.nz/otago
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/925
Author: NZPA

CUSTOMS MAN JAILED FOR DRUGS SMUGGLING

Auckland: The first time an international drugs syndicate approached 
Customs officer Tori Puata, he used an internal system set up to help 
Customs officers resist pressure from organised crime, the Auckland 
District Court was told yesterday.

But the second time they tried him, he did not ask for help.

Instead, he became a corrupt insider, smuggling hundreds of thousands of 
dollars worth of methamphetamine across the border he had spent his career 
protecting.

Yesterday, Puata was sentenced to nine years' jail with a minimum 
non-parole period of five years for his part in the syndicate.

Acting Customs Service controller Tim Horner said the procedure the 
department had to support officers approached by organised crime groups was 
"strong enough" - Puata had just chosen to ignore it.

The Customs Service will not detail the internal procedure it has set up to 
support officers approached by crime groups because it wants to keep the 
system protected from those groups.

However, it was not Puata's use of the support system that led the service 
to identify him as at risk of being corrupted. He was caught as part of its 
investigations into the drug smuggling syndicate itself.

"There are those that are not prepared to play by the rules and 
unfortunately Mr Puata was one bad apple in a very big barrel," Mr Horner said.

In sentencing Puata, Judge Simon Lockhart said Puata's crime was "a breach 
of trust that can only be regarded as corruption of the highest level".

Puata had co-ordinated the syndicate's couriers while on duty at Auckland 
Airport last year and even carried the drugs himself.

He gave syndicate members information about Customs Service profiling 
techniques and work practices to help them circumvent controls.

He had earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of importing methamphetamine over 
a seven-month period and faced a maximum of 14 years rather than the now 
mandatory life sentence because the conspiracy began before the drug was 
reclassified to class A.

Although the exact amount of drugs is not known, Puata admitted each 
importation involved several ounces of crystal methamphetamine - a pure 
form of the drug similar to P - with a street value of $140,000-$168,000.

No other members of the Australian-based syndicate have been caught.

Crown prosecutor Marc Corlett called for an "unmistakeable deterrent" to be 
sent where there was the corruption of an officer of the state.

He said the dissemination of the Customs profiling techniques to the 
criminal underworld was of "grave concern [and] its ongoing impact simply 
cannot be known".
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman