A man who went on the run for a year after a botched cocaine deal which involved the class A drug being hidden in a diamante-encrusted horse head has been jailed.
Henry Anchondo in Auckland High Court Photo: RNZ/ Eva Corlett
Henry Anchondo was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison when he appeared at the High Court in Auckland today.
Anchondo, who was travelling on a US passport, was involved in the largest ever importation of cocaine into New Zealand.
A large crate from Mexico was intercepted at the Auckland International Airport in May 2016.
When the authorities opened it they found it contained a large shrink-wrapped metal horse head statue, weighing approximately 336kgs, Justice Lang said.
The 400kg sculpture of a diamante-encrusted horse head had been freighted into New Zealand from Mexico. Photo: SUPPLIED
"Concealed within the statue was 35 one kilogram bricks of cocaine."
The bricks were removed and replaced with bricks containing a placebo substance.
"Approximately six grams of cocaine, together with a tracking device, were left concealed inside one of the bricks."
Using the tracking equipment inside the head, the police followed it to a storage unit in Onehunga, then watched it move to a house in Te Atatu.
Two suppliers - Mexican national Agustin Suarez-Juarez and US national Ronald Cook Senior - met with Anchondo to complete the deal at Auckland's Crown Plaza Hotel in July 2016.
When they discovered the tracking device all three left the hotel.
Suarez-Juarez and Cook were arrested trying to leave the country the same day and were jailed for 19 and 17 years respectively last August.
Anchondo went on the run for a year, before police caught up with him in Whangārei last September.
Justice Lang said Anchondo was a link in a chain designed to separate the vendor from the buyer.
He said Anchondo was like a "custodian courier" that had no role in the importation of the cocaine and wasn't involved in the planning of the process.
Anchondo faced a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Justice Lang took a starting point of 5 years and 6 months.
That was then decreased due to some mitigating factors, including that Anchondo was 34 years of age with no previous convictions.
"The present offending appears to have been an aberration from your normal conduct."
He also accepted that Anchondo was genuinely remorseful.
Because Anchondo pleaded guilty to the charges, 25 percent was taken off his sentence to arrive at 3 years and 8 months.
