Geraldton drug trafficker Epiha Lauchlan Mete-Kingi Potaka jailed over $800,000 meth haul

A Geraldton drug trafficker has labelled his own actions “despicable” after he was sentenced to eight years jail for trying to smuggle $800,000 worth of meth that was hidden inside his father’s removalist truck. Epiha Lauchlan Mete-Kingi Potaka, 27, was working for his father’s furniture removal company when the truck was pulled over by police on Brand Highway south of Greenough at 1.20pm September 27 last year. Police found about 800 grams of methylamphetamine in the lining of a suitcase belonging to Potaka in the rear of the truck with a purity of between 77 and 82 per cent. Defence lawyer Renee Ellis said Potaka was only acting as the courier of the drugs and was to be paid in methamphetamine upon delivery. In the District Court at Geraldton on Monday, Ms Ellis read a letter her client had written from prison. “Now I sit in my cell, I’ve been able to look at it with maturity to see all clearly,” he wrote. “I thought that I understood methamphetamines but now I realise just how little I did and how devastating it is and how despicable my actions have been.” Sentencing Potaka, Judge Bruce Goetze said often the cases appearing before him had the misuse of drugs at the core of the offence. “You have a significant and an entrenched substance abuse problem,” he said. “Now, that doesn’t excuse your offending, but it might explain it.” Potaka, who was facing life in prison over the incident, was given a 20 per cent sentence reduction for his early plea of guilty on March 12. He was sentenced to eight and a half years of imprisonment and designated a drug trafficker over the seizure, which was valued at $800,000. “Being a courier is playing a vital role in the distribution of drugs,” Judge Goetze said. “Every day in this court we have to deal with drug offending. “But we also have to deal with lots of other drug-related issues… that impacts heavily on members of the community.” He will be eligible for parole once he has served six and a half years.