A mother-of-seven who kept the books for a major drug ring has been jailed for five years and 10 months.
Kelly Louise Cole, 38, the partner of Wellington Nomads gang leader Paul Rodgers, also known as Porky Rimene, had pleaded guilty to multiple charges including conspiracy to supply methamphetamine, selling cannabis, money laundering, conspiracy to obstruct justice and participating in a criminal group.
Sentencing her in the High Court at Wellington on Tuesday, Justice Robert Dobson said Cole acted as a "bookkeeper" for a methamphetamine operation under which Rodgers bought drugs manufactured under the control of a supplier operating from an Auckland prison.
Another judge had found that methamphetamine with a street value of $3.3 million passed through Rodgers' operation.
"Anyone familiar with the horrendous consequences of methamphetamine use, as you certainly were, has to accept that equates to a very extensive amount of misery and wrecking of the lives of those taking the drug, and those near to them," Justice Dobson told Cole.
He took into account the physical and sexual violence she suffered from Rodgers, who was jailed for 15 years earlier in September.
But Justice Dobson said the threat and occurrence of violence appears to have reduced before she and Rodgers participated in the methamphetamine ring.
NZN