Drug-dealing granny lived the high life
By MATT CALMAN – The Dominion Post
Last updated 05:00 09/10/2010
A Kapati Coast grandmother dealt morphine to heroin addicts and used the drug trade to fund a lavish lifestyle of gold watches, diamond rings and BMW cars.
Pamela Ann Ranga, 63, a beneficiary, of Raumati Beach, did not work – her only declared income was $242.63 a week from her invalid’s benefit – but in the last three years nearly $600,000 was deposited into her bank accounts from unidentified sources.
With the proceeds of her drug dealing she bought a late-model BMW station wagon, a $23,000 diamond ring, a $13,000 gold watch and paid mortgages on two Kapiti Coast properties, valued at more than $1.1 million.
She lived in a plush Raumati Beach home and her son and family lived in her other property in Raumati. Police have frozen her assets and will attempt to have them seized under the proceeds of crime legislation.
She was jailed for six years in Wellington District Court yesterday on charges of possessing, supplying and conspiring to supply morphine sulphate.
Detective Sergeant Warwick McKee said Ranga was a big player in the Wellington drug scene. Morphine sulphate tablets, commonly known as "misties", are prescribed to ease the pain of terminal cancer patients but can be easily converted into heroin by drug users.
"She accumulated so much cash and assets for someone that hasn’t worked. It was very frustrating seeing how much wealth she’d got for the drug dealing. She had her fingers in a lot of pies.
"With the arrests we’ve made we’ve really made a good dent in the misty scene in Wellington. They’re really hard to get now. The market’s dried up a lot."
In February, police searched Ranga’s house and found a stun gun. She was later convicted for its possession and given a one-year deferred jail sentence.
Police launched Operation Symphony late last year after finding a spike in the number of "misties" and after three drug users’ deaths from overdoses and a rise in hospital admissions for opiate abuse. Arrests of several people for possession of the drug led them to Ranga.
When she and three associates were arrested in May, she had 298 "misties" and $3000 in her handbag. The pills, which she had bought for $900, had an estimated street value of about $17,000.
In 2008, the Health Ministry said nearly 30,000 people in New Zealand used opiate pain killers for recreational use and nearly 11,000 people regularly abused the drugs on a regular basis.
Ranga took over the drug dealing market after her husband died, and was believed to be supplying 300 "misties" every three days.
Judge Denys Barry said yesterday that Ranga was a long-term opiate addict with significant mental and physical health problems, some as a result of her drug use. "The inescapable inference was that her lifestyle was well beyond that of a person on an invalid’s benefit. That wealth must have been the fruits of dealing the morphine sulphate tablets."
Defence lawyer Sandy Baigent said Ranga had developed a misguided belief that she had to support her family at any cost and she was unable, through 20 years of drug use, to think clearly about the consequences.
She said Ranga had offended as much for financial gain as to feed her own habit. The seizure of her assets would not be disputed except for her family home and her engagement ring.
Associate David Anthony Warmington, 44, who was sentenced last month, was described as a pawn in the morphine ring, who took part mainly to feed his drug addiction. He was sentenced to seven months’ home detention and 150 hours’ community service.
Simon Nicholas Chapman, 36, and Paul Lavis Thomas Christian, 60, were arrested at the same time as Warmington and Ranga and have yet to be sentenced on possession and supply charges.
Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/4214006/Drug-dealing-granny-lived-the-high-life
Oh that guy is innocent compared to this old bat lol.
reminds me of this fella.. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/lancashire/7875395.stm , but at least it doesn’t seem like he was in it for the money…
