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• Felipe Montoya-Ospina worked on a dairy farm in Canterbury.
• His day job was a ‘cover’ for his role in a South American criminal group smuggling in large amounts of cocaine.
• He and his co-offenders are now serving stiff jail sentences, but he thinks his is ‘manifestly excessive’.

A member of a South American drug-smuggling ring thinks his jail sentence is too long, arguing that bringing cocaine into New Zealand is less serious than importing methamphetamine.

Felipe Montoya-Ospina was one of a number of South Americans who were involved in organised crime while outwardly living as dairy farm workers in rural Canterbury.

For nearly four years, they were smuggling in “wholesale” quantities of cocaine worth tens of millions of dollars.

Police believe the group was the biggest supplier of cocaine in New Zealand between January 2018 and December 2021.

Montoya-Ospina, 37, was jailed last year after pleading guilty to participating in an organised criminal group, personally importing 11.4kg of cocaine, attempting to import another 28.87kg of the drug and supplying cocaine.

He was sentenced in the High Court last July to 14 years and seven months in prison.

He and other members of the syndicate - Colombian and Argentinian nationals - were working on farms in the Darfield, Dunsandel and Hororata areas as “cover” for their illegal activities.

There was no evidence before the courts that farm owners or managers knew about their criminal dealings.

Smuggled cocaine worth millions

It was estimated the ring imported 42kg of cocaine with a street value of more than $19 million into New Zealand.

Another 59.1kg of cocaine with a street value of more than $26m was intercepted in an international operation which linked New Zealand police up with their Colombian and Spanish counterparts.

Montoya-Ospina was a senior member of the group and personally delivered cocaine to associates in Auckland, travelling from Christchurch by bus and ferry to avoid airport security.

He also took apart equipment brought in from overseas, with the drugs hidden inside.

When police searched Montoya-Ospina’s house near Hororata in November 2021, they found 10 cell phones, $30,000 in cash, tools to extract cocaine from the imported receptacles, snap lock bags, scales and a bottle of acetone that was used to wash the drugs.

They also found evidence linking him to seven successful imports.

When Montoya-Ospina was sentenced in the High Court at Christchurch last year, Justice Cameron Mander adopted a starting point of 18 years in prison for the successful importation of cocaine.

He then uplifted this by 18 months for the attempted imports, but made discounts for his guilty plea, his isolation and denial of family support in a New Zealand prison, and his potential for rehabilitation.

These discounts totalled 25%, bringing his end sentence to 14 years and seven months.

Jail sentence length challenged

His lawyers, Ethan Huda and Rachel Kim, took an appeal against that sentence to the Court of Appeal, arguing the 18-year starting point was too high and resulted in a “manifestly excessive” jail term.

“Counsel says that cocaine offending should be sentenced more leniently than methamphetamine offending, and that the 18-year starting point was too high even for methamphetamine importation,” a Court of Appeal judgment said.

The Appeal Court justices said that, in a previous case, the court had concluded that sentencing for cocaine should be roughly 5% below comparable methamphetamine offending.

Counsel for Montoya-Ospina said it should be more - a 10% adjustment.

They relied on two reports, a study in the Journal of Psychopharmacology and the New Zealand Illicit Drug Harm Index 2023, which suggested that cocaine is “substantially less” harmful than meth and other illicit drugs in New Zealand.

The Appeal Court justices, however, said they had not been provided with any expert evidence to contextualise and explain the conclusions reached in the reports.

“Contrary to appellant counsel’s submissions, we cannot say that the new reports would have resulted in the court concluding that an adjustment greater than 10% should have applied,” the Court of Appeal decision said.

Court dismisses appeal

The Court of Appeal concluded the starting point of 18 years was not out of range, and did not result in a manifestly excessive sentence.

It dismissed Montoya-Ospina’s appeal.

The drug ring’s consignments didn’t come directly from South America. They were sent from the United States or England. One consignment was intercepted in Spain. Another shipment came via Hong Kong.

Other members of the group also received stiff jail terms.

Estaban Blanco Gaviria, who uses Blanco as a surname, got 10 years and one month in jail.

David Alfredo Bonilla Casanas, 32, received a sentence of eight years and two months.

Ruth Ramirez-Alfonzo pleaded guilty to a single representative charge of importing cocaine. She was sentenced to three years and six months in prison. She has since been issued with a deportation liability notice.

Zane Robert Jordan, 33, a Kiwi customer who was not a core member of the syndicate supplying him, got five years and three months’ imprisonment for possession of cocaine for supply.

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined ��һ�ǿ�����’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.