Jeavon Jamie Rapata-Brookland (27), builder, of Arthurs Point, was sentenced in the Queenstown District Court yesterday on two charges of supplying MDMA, or ecstasy.
The police summary of facts said the defendant met a buyer named Jordan in Queenstown on July 20 last year and sold him 1.31g of ecstasy for $240.
Two days later, Jordan contacted the defendant and asked for more.
Rapata-Brookland asked a female associate to supply the drug, and although she initially refused, she changed her mind and met Jordan that day.
She sold Jordan 2.3g of ecstasy for $480, telling him it was "sketchy" for her to be selling drugs through Facebook.
She and Rapata-Brookland were among 10 people — including a Mongrel Mob member, and French and Chilean nationals — arrested in Queenstown, Wanaka and Roxburgh in October after a four-month investigation.
It was sparked by the discovery of a French-themed Facebook group page named "Les Branleurs en Nouvelle Zelande", or "W...... in New Zealand".
Nine search warrants carried out over two days netted cocaine, ecstasy, LSD, cannabis and about $10,000 cash.
Police searched Rapata-Brookland’s home on October 26 and seized his cellphone, although no drugs were found.
Counsel Louise Denton said Rapata-Brookland’s "opportunistic" offending involved two transactions of small amounts of ecstasy, and netted him only $720.
It was his first offending of this kind.
Judge Russell Walker said the defendant’s claim he was given the drug by a friend and made a "spur of the moment" decision to join the Facebook group was hard to believe.
Although references from his employer and family members spoke of his many positive attributes, his 23 convictions for violence, intentional damage and driving offences showed a pattern of poor decision-making.
Taking account of Rapata-Brookland’s early guilty plea, he sentenced him to four months’ community detention and 12 months’ supervision to enable intervention for any drug or alcohol issues.
The female associate, whose name was permanently suppressed by the court, admitted a charge of supplying ecstasy and was sentenced to 125 hours’ community work.
