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Drug maker lived next to
police chief
15 November 2006
By BRUCE CUTLER
Cooking pure methamphetamine on a balcony next to suspended Assistant Police
Commissioner Clint Rickards' home was probably not the smartest move for a
Napier drug maker.
Pungent odours produced during the cooking process do not usually waft around
the upmarket Taradale suburb where Cheye Trent Smith, 35, and Mr Rickards shared
a fence.
Three days after Smith finished making a batch of the drug in July, the home he
shared with his 12-year-old daughter was raided by police.
Rickards was photographed mowing the lawns as police searched Smith's $650,000
house.
They found a clandestine laboratory dismantled and buried in a container in the
backyard.
Smith admitted manufacturing methamphetamine as well as possessing the drug and
a precursor substance and materials needed to make it.
While in custody awaiting sentencing, three of Smith's former associates broke
into his house and stole a television and other goods worth more than $3000.
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Yesterday, in the High Court at Napier, beneficiary Smith was shown leniency on
a charge of manufacturing a Class A drug which carries a maximum penalty of life
imprisonment.
Defence lawyer Steve Manning told the court that Smith suffered from depression
and had made the pure methamphetamine for his own use in order to feed an
addiction that had got out of control.
Mr Manning also explained to the court that an elaborate security system at
Smith's house, involving surveillance cameras, sensor alarms and lights,
punch-code locks and a central monitoring system in a bedroom, was because his
client had an "acute interest in electronics".
Justice Christopher Allan jailed Smith for two years and eight months.
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