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He was the president of Rotorua’s Filthy Few gang, but getting caught up with a drug-smuggling ring involving Tauranga offenders and a Mexican cartel was a turning point in his life of crime.

Jeffrey Gear, 44, was facing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment but has instead been handed a sentence of 11 months’ home detention.

Why? Since his arrest in 2021, Gear has handed in his patch and got clean. So much so Justice Matthew Palmer described him during sentencing as someone who was now a “role model and a leader”.

Gear appeared in the High Court at Rotorua today for sentencing after previously pleading guilty to three charges - possession of methamphetamine for supply, conspiring to manufacture methamphetamine and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Charges of cultivating cannabis and possession of ammunition were withdrawn by police.

Gear became involved in the drug-smuggling ring through his Filthy Few contacts.

Those arrested include two patched members of the Rotorua chapter of the Filthy Few Motorcycle Club, police said. Photo / NZ Police

His arrest was part of Operation Tarpon, which saw eight people arrested.

Among them was Maurice Oliver Swinton from Te Puke, a Port of Tauranga stevedore who was  last month for his role as an “inside man” in a plot to smuggle 200kg of cocaine from a Mexican cartel into New Zealand in a shipping container.

During Gear’s sentencing today, Justice Palmer said Gear was told a supplier in Mexico had a couple of kilos of liquid methamphetamine for them. A co-offender, Angel Gavito Alverado from Tauranga — the New Zealand representative for the Mexican cartel — arranged for 2kg of liquid methamphetamine to be made available.

Another co-offender, Tangaroa Demant, transported it from Auckland to Gear’s house in Rotorua, where he and Gear tried to extract methamphetamine from the liquid. They were not successful.

Police intercepted communications in February 2021 that revealed Gear, Demant and another co-offender, Tama Waitai, decided to manufacture methamphetamine. Gear told Waitai he needed “water”, which was a term used for an acid that was a precursor chemical.

Gear was to be the “cook” and he said he could probably do a quarter of the amount they were planning to manufacture.

The intercepted communications also indicated they had iodine, which was required for manufacture. The intercepted calls also revealed Demant told Waitai he was going to pass on 15kg of ephedrine to Waitai and Gear to manufacture the drug.

When police raided Gear’s house on April 29, they found a lever action .22 rifle under a sink on a bus at the property.

A cultural report prepared for Gear’s sentencing revealed Gear was born when his mother was just 16. His father was in prison at the time. Gear had an undiagnosed learning disorder and only lasted a month at secondary school before, at age 13, he started living on the streets and getting addicted to drugs.

His father introduced him to methamphetamine and he smoked it every day for 25 years until recently.

He became involved in gangs and after being a member of the Filthy Few in Rotorua for 10 years, became the gang’s president.

But his arrest in 2021 saw him hand in his patch and start extensive rehabilitation. He completed three courses including a 90-day in-patient course last year. He has also become involved with Te Ahi Kikoha, the White Ribbon Riders Domestic Violence Awareness group and presented as a key speaker on rehabilitation in November last year.

He’s now a member of Narcotics Anonymous and Alocholics Anonymous and has been offered a scholarship of 15 hours’ paid work to train as a facilitator for the mana-enhancing programme called Stop-Meth.

Justice Palmer said the father of three with two mokopuna and one on the way, had made a pact with a relative to stay clean of addiction.

Justice Palmer described it as important to Gear and “if I may say so, impressive”.

“Your rehabilitation goes well beyond your own recovery and extends to the community ... I consider your efforts are sincere. You are well-known in the community and seen as a leader and a role model.”

Gear’s lawyer Ron Mansfield said the court normally took a hard line with drug offending but given his client’s rehabilitation and leadership in combating addiction, the end sentence should be one of home detention.

Despite the lead charge of possession of methamphetamine for supply carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, Crown prosecutor Duncan McWilliam agreed with Mansfield.

McWilliam said that given what Gear had achieved in the past two years, a jail term would be counterproductive.

Justice Palmer said home detention was a difficult sentence, as almost all New Zealanders discovered during Covid lockdowns - and, unlike those on home detention, they were allowed to leave their homes.

But he said home detention allowed Gear to continue with significant rehabilitation steps he had already made. By contrast, a sentence of imprisonment was likely to expose him directly to the sort of gang environment that got him into the offending and his old lifestyle in the first place.

Alverado and Waitai have been sentenced already for their involvement in the offending and Demant will be sentenced on June 7 in the High Court at Hamilton.