A 28-year-old man has voluntarily returned from Britain to face a charge of importing cocaine.
Paul Damien McMenamin was living in London when he received an emailed request from a family member to send the class A drug, Christchurch District Court was told on Tuesday.
He sent 0.8g of the drug in a bag inside a CD disk case, beneath the disk, the Christchurch Court News website reported.
Police prosecutor Trudi Aickin said the package was intercepted by New Zealand Customs at Auckland Airport’s International Mail Centre.
The drug was analysed and customs then sent the package to the recipient in Elmwood, Christchurch. A search warrant was executed soon after delivery and the package was found in a vehicle. A computer was seized so that the exchange of emails could be analysed.
When McMenamin arrived in New Zealand in March, he was confronted with the evidence and admitted the offence.
Defence counsel Kerry Cook told the court the Christchurch man who asked for the drug to be sent had been sentenced to two months home detention.
He said that since McMenamin’s arrest he had been allowed to travel overseas again and had voluntarily returned from England to enter his guilty plea.
Judge John Bisphan remanded McMenamin on bail until his sentencing in the High Court on November 5. He ordered McMenamin to surrender his passport .
NZPA
