Drug farmer built 'shanty' on Waikato swampland to harvest cannabis plots

RNZ News

6 days ago

By Belinda Feek, Open Justice reporter of
Huntly men Jason Evans and Jayson Woods were charged after police discovered their cannabis growing operation on the shores of Lake Waahi in Huntly.
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A drug farmer built a makeshift structure on the edge of a Waikato lake so he could row out and check on his cannabis plots, which he claims were at some point worth more than $200,000.
In March 2021, Jason Edward Evans, 46, spent about eight weeks building the "shanty", which sat on the shores of Lake Waahi in Huntly.
He and co-offender, champion New Zealand powerlifter Jayson George Woods, then used wooden pallets to get access around the cannabis plots on the swamplands surrounding the lake.
Hamilton District Court recently heard that after building the structure, Evans lived in it for at least three weeks while he tended to his crop, harvesting the plants and setting up drying racks. Parts of the area were only accessible via boat.
Then, in February 2022, police discovered about 1000 cannabis plants in six different spots in the lake area, describing the cultivation as a "large-scale commercial cannabis" operation.
The discovery led police to Evans and Woods. When searching Evans' home in April that year, officers also found 15 x 500ml bottles of cannabis oil, $2480 cash, ammunition, 1kg of cannabis cabbage, 10 vials of steroids, and bottles of Jungle Juice and Rush.
Jungle Juice and Rush are leather cleaning products but they can also be misused for other purposes.
Evans told police he had harvested more than $200,000 worth of cannabis plants from his lakeside plots and that the cannabis oil and steroids were for his personal use.
Aggravating Evans' situation, he was later busted with methamphetamine, cocaine, a firearm and prohibited firearm magazines this year, while on bail for the earlier offending.
He was caught with those items when a firefighter was looking for a missing cat under a bed after a suspicious fire at Evans' Huntly property.
The firefighter noticed a .22 rifle under the bed and reported it to police.
The rifle was loaded with six rounds of ammunition, and, as it can hold 25 cartridges, is classified as a prohibited magazine.
In a black bag, officers found 1.3g of cocaine, 172mg of meth, a meth pipe, Evans' passport, driver's licence, bank cards, medication and his phone.
In his garage, they discovered a lathe surrounded by more ammunition, including a Ruger magazine, silencer and other firearms parts.
After the earlier cannabis discovery, police also searched Woods' Huntly home and found 216 vials of prescription-only steroids and more than 300 unidentified pills.
Officers also found a "small fully functional indoor cannabis grow room" in his garage, which had 18 seedlings, lights, power ballast, a timer and a mobile air con unit. A packet of unopened bullets and $4250 were also seized.
Woods, 33, accepted there were "a couple of ounces of weed" at his house and said the steroids were his.
According to court documents, he said he took them "because he is a New Zealand powerlifter".
At Evans' recent sentencing, his counsel, Jasper Rhodes, said in explaining the 1000-plant discovery that it was grown in the wild and only about half of it would be "usable head".
"It can only be harvested once a year because of the weather," he said, before stating that it was different from a hydroponic set-up in which all plants could be harvested.
Judge Arthur Tompkins pointed out that, despite that, Evans had told police he had harvested more than $200,000 worth of cannabis.
Rhodes said Evans was "primarily growing for personal use".
He submitted that the operation was a "one-off, unsophisticated" situation with Evans "going in and out" to the hut by kayak.
"This little hut [had] no glass, no windows, no walls, basically a shanty in the middle of the bush, compared with a person who is growing in hydroponic set-ups purely for personal gain with more plants."
However, Rhodes accepted the drug offending Evans committed while on bail was an aggravating feature.
He said Evans had the weapons and ammunition because he'd been the victim of attempted burglaries, break-ins and a violent home invasion in which he "almost died".
As for the fire, that was investigated as arson, he said.
"Without suggesting he was right to have a gun, he was right that he thought he was under threat," Rhodes said.
"He had a reason, not a legitimate reason," the judge replied.
Rhodes pushed for an end sentence of around 18 months, which would mean his client could walk out of prison, on time served, in about a month.
But, on numerous charges, including cultivation of cannabis, possession of class A, B and C drugs, unlawful possession of firearms, prohibited magazines and ammunition, Judge Tompkins jailed Evans for two years and three months.
Woods was sentenced earlier to 11 months' home detention on charges including cannabis cultivation for his involvement.
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This story originally appeared in the
New Zealand Herald
.