New Zealand poker champ gets prison pay for drug smuggling
A poker player from New Zealand's Hawke's Bay who was jailed for drug trafficking in 2018 had his sentence increased this week amid an increase in drug smuggling.
Shane Thompson, also known as Shane Tamihana, found success at the poker tables in the mid-2010s. The highlight was winning the 2016 SkyCity Casino Poker Festival Main Event for $36,555. It was probably the only "honest" money he made that year.
Thompson was reportedly an aggressive poker player who liked to yell "Later Bo" when knocking opponents out of tournaments, an offensive violation of poker etiquette.
But his luck ran out in 2017, when he was charged with trafficking methamphetamine. When police searched his home, they found 2.6 kilograms of drugs and more than NZ$170,000 (US$100,000) in cash. In 2018, a judge described Thompson as "the most thoroughgoing ice dealer Hawke's Bay has ever seen" before sentencing him to 13 years in prison.
Thompson celebrated his 15th birthday on Friday after being found guilty in January of smuggling a small amount of methamphetamine to another prisoner, the New Zealand Herald reported.
ILLEGAL PHONE
Napier District Court Judge Bridget Mackintosh sentenced Thompson to 23 months in prison, to be added to any time he had already served. These include supplying methamphetamine, trafficking and illegal possession of mobile phones.
Thompson used an illegal cell phone to contact an unidentified person to provide drugs and deliver the drugs to a woman who was supposed to be visiting another inmate.
Johnson's attorney, Eric Foster, argued that Thompson did it "just to do the inmates a favor" and not for personal gain. However, McIntosh said Thompson's behavior "undermines all prison rehabilitation programs and undermines prison discipline".
Meth Empire
Prosecutors allege Thompson was the leader of a vast criminal network that smuggled $4.2 million worth of methamphetamine into the Hawke's Bay region over an 11-month period in 2016 and 2017.
In 2018, the New Zealand Police Asset Recovery Team seized five vehicles and NZ$130,000 in cash from Thompson and his deputy, Petera Gamlen. In 2022, authorities obtained a court order to seize Thompson's home, another vehicle and bank deposits totaling more than NZ$90,000, despite his attempts to hide the assets by registering them under false names.
In May 2023, Thompson attempted to have his sentence commuted by the Supreme Court of New Zealand. He argued that the six-and-a-half-year prison sentence he imposed violated established legal standards for plea reduction. The offer was unsuccessful.
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Source: www.casino.org
