{"id":298274,"date":"2023-11-10T17:35:50","date_gmt":"2023-11-10T23:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=298274"},"modified":"2023-11-15T15:09:36","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T21:09:36","slug":"meth-dealing-kiwi-poker-champ-gets-add-on-for-smuggling-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/meth-dealing-kiwi-poker-champ-gets-add-on-for-smuggling-drugs\/","title":{"rendered":"Meth-Dealing Kiwi Poker Champ Gets Add-On for Smuggling Prison Drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"

A poker player from Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, imprisoned in 2018 for drug smuggling, saw his sentenced increased this week \u2013 because of more drug smuggling.<\/p>\n

\"Shane
Shane Thompson, above, won the Sky City Festival of Poker main event in 2016. In 2018, a judge described him as \u201cthe most comprehensive methamphetamine dealer Hawke\u2019s Bay has ever seen.\u201d(Image: New Zealand Herald)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shane Thompson<\/a>, also known as Shane Tamihana, enjoyed success at the poker tables in the mid-2010s. The highlight was winning the main event at the Sky City Casino\u2019<\/a>s Festival of Poker in 2016 for US$36,555. It was probably the only \u201chonest\u201d money he made that year.<\/p>\n

Thompson was reportedly an aggressive poker player who liked to call out the phrase \u201cLater Bo\u201d as he knocked an opponent out of a tournament in an unpleasant breach of poker etiquette.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But his luck ran out in 2017 when he was nailed for dealing meth. When police raided his home, they found 2.6kg of the drug and more than NZ$170K (US$100K) in cash. In 2018, a judge described Thompson as \u201cthe most comprehensive methamphetamine dealer Hawke\u2019s Bay has ever seen\u201d before sentencing him to 13 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Thompson made it 15 years Friday after he was found guilty of organizing a small quantity of methamphetamine to be smuggled in for another prisoner in January this year, The New Zealand Herald <\/em>reports.<\/p>\n

Illegal Cellphone<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Judge Bridget Mackintosh at Napier District Court sentenced Thompson to 23 months, which will be added to the term he is already serving. That\u2019s for supplying methamphetamine, smuggling, and unauthorized possession of a cell phone.<\/p>\n

Thompson used the illegal cellphone to contact an unknown person to provide the drugs, which were handed to a woman who was due to visit another inmate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s lawyer, Eric Forster, argued that Thompson had done this \u201csimply [as] a favor\u201d to the inmate and not for any personal gain. But Mackintosh said Thompson\u2019s behavior \u201cundermine[d] any rehabilitation programs in prison and undermine[d] prison discipline.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meth Empire\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Prosecutors accused Thompson of being the head of a sprawling criminal network that flooded $4.2 million worth of meth into the Hawke\u2019s Bay region over 11 months in 2016 and 2017.<\/p>\n

\n

In 2018, New Zealand\u2019s Police Asset Recovery Unit seized five vehicles and NZ$130K in cash from Thompson and his second-in-command, Petera Gamlen. In 2022, authorities were granted court orders to seize Thompson\u2019s home, an additional vehicle, and bank deposits totaling more than NZ$90K, despite his attempt to hide these assets by registering them under aliases.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In May 2023, Thompson attempted to have his sentence reduced in New Zealand\u2019s Supreme Court. He argued that the no-parole period of six and a half years attached to his sentence undermined the established legal standard of granting discounts for guilty pleas. The bid was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A poker player from Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, imprisoned in 2018 for drug smuggling, saw his sentenced increased this week \u2013 because of more drug smuggling. Shane Thompson, also known as Shane Tamihana, enjoyed success at the poker tables in the mid-2010s. The highlight was winning the main event at the Sky City Casino\u2019s Festival […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":275230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,83771,14],"tags":[86485,82489,81907,86484,86483],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMeth-Dealing Kiwi Poker Champ Gets Add-On for Smuggling Drugs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Shane Thompson, aka poker player Shane Tamihana, has two years added to his sentence for smuggling drugs into prison.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/meth-dealing-kiwi-poker-champ-gets-add-on-for-smuggling-drugs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meth-Dealing Kiwi Poker Champ Gets Add-On for Smuggling Drugs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shane Thompson, aka poker player Shane Tamihana, has two years added to his sentence for smuggling drugs into prison.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/meth-dealing-kiwi-poker-champ-gets-add-on-for-smuggling-drugs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-10T23:35:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-15T21:09:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Thompson.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"892\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"605\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/meth-dealing-kiwi-poker-champ-gets-add-on-for-smuggling-drugs\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/meth-dealing-kiwi-poker-champ-gets-add-on-for-smuggling-drugs\/\",\"name\":\"Meth-Dealing Kiwi Poker Champ Gets Add-On for Smuggling Drugs\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/meth-dealing-kiwi-poker-champ-gets-add-on-for-smuggling-drugs\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/meth-dealing-kiwi-poker-champ-gets-add-on-for-smuggling-drugs\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Thompson.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-10T23:35:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-15T21:09:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Shane Thompson, aka poker player Shane Tamihana, has two years added to his sentence for smuggling drugs into prison.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/meth-dealing-kiwi-poker-champ-gets-add-on-for-smuggling-drugs\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/meth-dealing-kiwi-poker-champ-gets-add-on-for-smuggling-drugs\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/meth-dealing-kiwi-poker-champ-gets-add-on-for-smuggling-drugs\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Thompson.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Thompson.jpg\",\"width\":892,\"height\":605,\"caption\":\"Shane Thompson, above, won the Sky City Festival of Poker main event in 2016. 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