WELLINGTON: Mr New Zealand body-builder has been jailed for importing methamphetamine, with a potential value of $1.4 million, into the country from Hong Kong in neck pillows.
Yoram Kalev, 48, from Roseneath in Wellington, had won body-building titles five times in past. He had been working as personal trainer at a Les Mills gym when he went to Hong Kong to help set up a body-building business. He was asked to bring the neck pillows back and did so believing he was smuggling in ephedrine.
On Friday, Wellington District Court judge Denys Barry jailed him for six years and 10 months for being a mule in the drug operation.
Kalev had pleaded guilty to importing methamphetamine and possession of the drug for supply.
The judge said Kalev did not know he was carrying methamphetamine.
He was stopped at Wellington Airport by Customs in January. Officers discovered the drugs after finding the neck pillow he was carrying was unusually heavy. A second pillow was found in Kalev’s luggage. X-rays showed inconsistences in the pillows.
Plastic bags inside the pillows were found to be filled with methamphetamine. One pillow had 638 grams and the second had 758 grams.
The judge said while Kalev had no previous convictions, he had been warned several times by customs for importing ephedrine between 2010 and 2015, which was linked to his obsession with body-building.
He said the methamphetamine was worth between $238,000 and $1.46 million, depending on its purity.
Defence lawyer Letizea Ord said Kalev’s body building days were now over and he wanted to get on with his life without drugs. She said Kalev was a personal trainer and his job was to make people’s lives better, not to destroy them.
He had never been into recreational drug use, but because of his obsession with body-building began to use steroids and ephedrine to lose weight before competitions. “He said he has paid a very huge price for this mistake, for a moment of not thinking clearly,” she said.
Customs investigations manager Maurice O’Brien said Kalev’s sentencing showed that crime does not pay.
“This was an excellent example of our officers using passenger targeting systems and their skills and expertise to find and stop drugs. Keeping harmful drugs away from our communities is a priority.”
