Two guilty after drug trial

• Published date: 11 May 2021
• Author: John Weekes
• Publication title: Whanganui Chronicle

Sailor Aleksandr Cherushev and Polish men Ryszard Wilk and Patryk Lukasz Lukasik pleaded not guilty to charges including importing cocaine.

Prosecutors said Cherushev sailed into New Zealand on the ship Discovery Bay from Panama, then went into downtown Auckland with kilograms of cocaine.

Wilk was found guilty on four charges including importing cocaine at the High Court in Auckland.

Lukasik was found guilty of money laundering as well as importing cocaine.

The Crown alleged Lukasik delivered that cocaine to Wilk, and to Wilk’s son Ralph.

During the trial, jurors were told Ralph Wilk had already admitted supplying cocaine.

The Crown also claimed Lukasik encouraged the enterprise, and helped with money laundering.

But Cherushev, giving evidence in his own defence, said he never met the other men on trial before he was arrested, and he had nothing to do with importing drugs.

Jurors heard from detectives who dug up rubbish bags and cocaine remnants at Auckland’s Bastion Pt Reserve in 2017.

Prosecutors said this strange stash was linked to a much bigger cocaine racket.

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