The three packages, all intercepted by Customs, contained 111.7 grams, 146.4g and 138.3g of the drug.
The full quantity of 396.4g had an estimated avenue worth of $268,800.
A jury discovered Wright responsible of three counts of importing meth in 2019 and the next yr he was sentenced to 9 years and 6 months in jail.
Police then went after his property underneath the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009, which is geared toward confiscating criminals’ ill-gotten features.
They focused his 114-year-old two-bedroom house in Sydenham, Christchurch.
The police software to the High Court for the forfeiture of the property claimed it was “tainted”, being partly paid for by the importation and provide of methamphetamine.
The police software valued the house at $300,000. The 2022 ratable valuation of the property, nonetheless, was $450,000.
Wright had a mortgage on it of solely $25,000.
Though Wright was not convicted of supplying methamphetamine, Excessive Court docket Justice Rachel Dunningham stated he had historic convictions for cultivating hashish, importing ephedrine, possessing meth, and importing the restricted drug gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) from Thailand.
Police informed the Excessive Court docket that the “totality of proof” pointed to Wright having been concerned within the business provide of meth, in addition to importing it.
“In my opinion, the totality of the proof means that, not less than in 2017, Mr Wright had established a sample of buying methamphetamine on the dark web utilizing bitcoin and promoting it, albeit usually by means of encrypted communications,” Justice Dunningham stated.
“Whereas he has no prior prison convictions for importing methamphetamine, he has two convictions for importing different drugs, so can not declare to haven’t any expertise in such actions.”
Police searched the Sydenham house in November 2017 and located two glass meth pipes, 9 cell telephones and several other SIM playing cards.
The variety of one of many telephones had been given because the contact quantity for one of many packages from California, which had been redirected to a Kiwibank Publish Store for assortment.
One other of the telephone numbers was used to name the courier service FedEx in connection with the parcels.
Additionally discovered at Wright’s house was a doc which contained a information on use the dark web to import drugs utilizing Bitcoin.
Customs investigators discovered that Wright had used encrypted functions on his telephones, together with messages inviting a contact to make use of the confidential messaging app Wickr.
“When the telephones had been analysed, there have been additionally textual content messages, considered one of which advised that Mr Wright was dealing in drugs and others which confirmed that he was shopping for bitcoin,” Justice Dunningham stated.
“At his trial, it was the Crown’s case that Mr Wright was utilizing bitcoin as a method to buy methamphetamine for provide.”
Justice Dunningham stated the mortgage for the Sydenham house was paid from the identical checking account {that a} “vital quantity” of suspicious money was paid into.
Wright tried to elucidate the suspicious money actions by saying they had been withdrawals from a crypto buying and selling account, Xapo, from automobile gross sales on TradeMe and earnings from boarders.
However his transaction historical past with Xapo didn’t disclose any transactions resulting in money withdrawals.
Justice Dunningham stated there was no proof that the money got here from automobile buying and selling or TradeMe gross sales.
His solely paying boarder was his girlfriend.
Wright’s declared earnings in the course of the years earlier than his convictions was “at all times modest”, reaching a excessive level of $47,935 in 2014-15 and fewer than $23,000 in 2016-17, police informed the courtroom.
Regardless of this, between March and October 2017, Wright obtained $51,400 in money deposits into his financial institution accounts.
Wright was not working and on advantages from 2017 onwards, however was nonetheless in a position to meet his mortgage funds and improve his fairness within the property, Justice Dunningham stated.
She ordered the possession of the property to be transferred to the Crown.
Ric Stevens spent a few years working for the previous New Zealand Press Affiliation information company, together with as a political reporter at Parliament, earlier than holding senior positions at varied each day newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice group in 2022 and relies in Hawke’s Bay. His writing within the crime and justice sphere is knowledgeable by 4 years of front-line expertise as a probation officer.