In New Zealand, drug offences generally fall into three classifications, Class A, Class B and Class C drugs. Click here to read more about the different classes and their associated penalties on the New Zealand Police website.
It is important to know that Class A drug dealing offences attract very serious and lengthy prison sentences. Any drug dealing offences which include selling, supplying, manufacturing or importing Class A drugs (such as heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine) will automatically attract a life imprisonment term. If you are sentenced on a Class A drug trafficking offence, the law dictates the type of sentence you get will be based predominately on the amount of drugs involved.
Denise Wallwork is the most experienced counsel at Liberty Law and has been involved in numerous drug operation trials involving Class A drugs. She conducted one of New Zealand’s longest running Class A drug trials, which took over 4 ½ month, with success.
Drug trials require specialist knowledge of the law as they can be complex. For example, pre-trial applications in complex trials can be numerous, and search warrants can feature significantly in drug trials. Liberty Law is able to assess whether search warrants made by the Police to obtain evidence can be validly challenged. The result of such a challenge being successful would mean that all evidence found as a result of the search warrant could be dismissed.
