Businessman Ronnie Kivalu convicted of importing 30kg of meth from Tonga for King Cobras gang

While the original focus of the investigation was to discover how organized crime groups were smuggling drugs by air so easily, Operation Selena also discovered that Feleti was bringing in illicit shipments by sea.

Encrypted conversations extracted from his phone showed he was in regular contact with someone importing food from Tonga. His name was Ronnie Kivalu and he ran a business called R&J Pacific Ltd.

Looking back at the encrypted messages, it was clear to police that Kivalu arranged for 7kg of methamphetamine to be hidden among frozen products in a container that left Tonga in late March 2021.

When the shipping container was unloaded at Auckland ports in April, Kivalu texted Feleti to say the meth was almost ready to be picked up (“Morning, yes, tomorrow at the latest (fingers crossed emoji”) and to bring plastic ziplock bags for packaging.

A few weeks later, Feleti texted Kivalu to explain that the Tribesmen biker gang had complained about the poor quality of the drugs, which was making it difficult to sell.

The appearance of another source of methamphetamine, at sea, was a clue the police could not ignore. So while they maintained surveillance of Sese Vimahi and the Air NZ crew, a separate phase of the investigation, Operation Schrute, was established to focus on Kivalu.

Any freight from R&J Pacific Ltd was reported to customs and this was paid immediately on the next shipment, which landed in Auckland at the end of July 2021.

Among the 477 bags of frozen cassava, taro and kava powder was a single white vinyl bag that raised the suspicions of customs officials.

Inside the bag were two black ziplock bags filled with plastic zip-top bags — wrapped in white electrical tape — containing ice-like crystals that drug tests confirmed were methamphetamine.

The total weight was almost 30 kg.

While Kivalu’s fingerprints were metaphorically all over the meth, more evidence was needed to prove his involvement.

The investigators of Operation Schrute made a strategic decision to do a “controlled delivery” of the shipment, in which almost all the drugs were carefully repackaged with rock salt (a placebo substitute) and delivered to their destination as if nothing had happened. found.

Watching patiently could get Kivalu caught in the act, not to mention anyone else he was working with.

On 6 August 2021, the container was transported to a shipping company called EIF International Ltd, an import broker used by R&J Pacific Ltd.

One of FEI’s warehousemen was accredited to the Ministry of Primary Industries, which checks food imports for pests or disease and also unpacks shipping containers for inspection.

Three days later, EIF shop took the white vinyl bag out of the container, put it in the back of his car and drove home to a property in Windrush Close, Māngere.

About two hours later, undercover surveillance watched a silver Volkswagen Golf arrive at the same address.

The driver was Ralph Vuletic, who previously made headlines as a high-profile real estate developer convicted of serious Fraud Bureau charges nearly a decade ago.

Vuletic was seen taking two bags to a warehouse in West Auckland for safekeeping, then returned the next day to collect the bags and took them to a home in Mt Wellington. It was Ronnie Kivalu’s family home.

A few hours later, the police searched the property. Officers found disposable gloves, electronic scales and a large number of ziplock bags in the garage, along with 30kg of the placebo drug.

Kivalu was arrested, but two other men managed to escape by jumping over the back fence.

The pair were tracked down and identified as the Iuvale twins, Nigel and Tony, who were members of the King Cobras gang.

Before they were interrupted, the brothers had been busy with Kivalu breaking down the nearly 30kg of suspected methamphetamine into smaller quantities for resale.

In Vuletic’s storage facility, police found 5kg of meth in Chinese gold tea packets – a signature of Sam Gor, an Asian organized crime syndicate that dominates the global drug trade.

Another kilogram of methamphetamine was found in Vuletic’s home, along with a gun.

Back in Tonga, the person who, acting on the instructions of Ronnie Kivalu, hid the methamphetamine among the frozen vegetables was also identified.

Kama Manulevu, 45, has become the first person in Tongan history to be given a mandatory life sentence for a drug offense under tough new laws.

In August this year, Kivalu was sentenced in the Auckland District Court after pleading guilty to importing almost 37kg of the Class A drug.

He was supported by a large group of family, friends and senior members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who provided references in support of his character.

The court was told Kivalu was born in Auckland and one of eight siblings raised by their parents, who emigrated from Tonga.

They worked hard, but money was tight. Kivalu had trouble in his teenage years, messing with gangs of street youth, but he was also a talented athlete. He moved to Australia to pursue rugby as a career and turned his life around without a criminal conviction in 20 years.

Kivalu married and started a family, eventually having eight children of his own. He moved back to New Zealand in 2015 when his mother died.

His mother’s death caused Kivalu to inadvertently reconnect with his criminal past, his lawyer Sumudu Thode said in her sentencing submissions to Judge June Jelas.

This happened because Kivalu took it upon himself to settle his mother’s estate, which was in significant financial difficulty.

Her death and the inherited debt weighed heavily on Kivalu and led him to look for other ways to make money.

“You could see no other way out of the situation,” Judge Jelas said. “As a result, you have put yourself and your family in a very difficult situation.”

He was sentenced to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty and will be eligible for parole after serving five and a half years.

The Iuvale twins pleaded guilty to possession of the class A drug for supply in connection with the almost 30kg of meth found at Kivalu’s home.

Tony Iuvale was jailed for nine years and 10 months, while Nigel was jailed for 18 years for also being convicted of separate offenses of importing commercial quantities of methamphetamine.

Nigel Iuvale managed to orchestrate drug smuggling through a network of corrupt baggage handlers at Auckland Airport that was completely independent of Sese Vimahi.

Also known as “Tongan Pablo”Vimahi is currently serving a 14-year-seven-month prison sentence for helping to smuggle 20kg of methamphetamine that was discovered in an earlier investigation.

His prison time will likely increase when he is sentenced in February.

Described as Nigel Iuvale’s right-hand man, Vuletic was sentenced to 10 years in prisonwhile Feleti was imprisoned for 14 years and nine months.

Jared Savage is an award-winning journalist covering crime and justice issues with a particular interest in organized crime. He joined the Herald in 2006 and is the author Gangland and Gangster’s paradise.