Oh diddums you can’t run marathons in our prisons

Stuff reports:

Four members of an international drugs syndicate that attempted to smuggle $20m worth of cocaine into New Zealand have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from 27 to 14 years.

​The men, a Serbian, a Croat and two Australians, were sentenced at the High Court in Rotorua on Tuesday for the audacious plot that involved submersible scooters, gym bags stuffed with cash and the use of container ships as unwitting drug mules. 

It remains the biggest seizure of cocaine in New Zealand history and, it was revealed in court, was the syndicate’s third importation into the country.

Croatian Mario Habulin was sentenced to 27 years and six months, Serbian Deni Cavallo was sentenced to 23 years and Australians Matthew John Scott and Benjamin Northway received sentences of 24 years and eight months and 14 years and nine months respectively. 

Fairly decent terms.

A cultural report cited by Justice Powell revealed Habulin “took a dim view of the New Zealand prison system compared to the French prison system”.

Powell, however, dismissed Habulin’s concerns cited in the report, including that he would not be able to access education while in prison and run ultra-marathons, as he had in the French system. 

Oh poor diddums.