However, after receiving a promotion, he decided to stay put.

Over the next seven years, Blanco rose through the farm’s ranks as he gained more experience and qualifications, before making the switch to pig farming.

He was well-liked, and his new employer thought of him as a “reliable, responsible, articulate and diligent” worker.

The Colombians

But while Blanco’s life in New Zealand was going well, it was a different story for his father in Colombia.

To help his father, Blanco says he sent money home to him.

Soon after, his partner introduced him to a group of Colombians in New Zealand. The group included three members of a transnational drug syndicate, one of whom was the leader, and whom he socialised with at barbecues and parties.

It wasn’t long before he found himself on the wrong side of the law – helping launder the proceeds of cocaine the syndicate had imported into New Zealand.

In April 2021, he arranged to launder $102,500 and send the money to Colombia with his father’s help.

Esteban Blanco handed over $200,000 of drug money to an undercover agent.
POLICE / STUFF

However, for reasons which remain unclear, some of it didn’t make it.

Blanco was blamed for the failed transaction. To pay back the missing funds, he was forced to become more involved in the illicit operation, he says.

Now working in real estate, Blanco’s father received a call out of the blue from a man who was interested in buying a property, an affidavit he wrote in support of his son says.

He arranged to meet the man at a restaurant.

“When I arrived, there were three people I had not met before,” Blanco’s father’s affidavit says.

“We greeted each other and then one of them said extremely intimidatingly: ‘We are not here to buy any lots. What we want is for you to tell Esteban to do what he is told, or you and your family will pay the consequences. Call him and speak to him.’”

Following the incident, Blanco felt he had little choice but to become directly involved in importing cocaine into New Zealand, and packages carrying variations of his name were delivered to rural Canterbury properties linked to members of the syndicate.

By September 2021, undercover DEA agents had infiltrated the crime group, and were involved in laundering money for the cartel supplying the cocaine.

Blanco unwittingly met with one of the agents and handed over $100,000.

The arrest

On November 10, 2021, Blanco was driving to work when he saw the red and blue flashing lights of a police car in his rearview mirror.

He was under arrest.

Blanco had been identified as a key member of the syndicate as part of a months-long joint police and Customs investigation.

Authorities found 23.6kg of cocaine destined for New Zealand in Barcelona, hidden inside hot water cylinders, which was linked to the syndicate.
POLICE / STUFF

Ten others were also arrested as part of the investigation, dubbed Operation Mist.

Two and a half years later Blanco admitted representative charges of money laundering and importing cocaine and participating in an organised criminal group.

All up the syndicate was linked to the attempted importation of 101kg of the drug.

Authorities believe the cocaine was likely sourced from Escobar’s infamous Medellín Cartel.

At Blanco’s sentencing last week, his lawyer Miranda Rout said messages between Blanco and his father showed why he laundered money after living a crime-free life.

“The threat made to his father and the consequences of that threat being carried out, namely his father being executed by the cartel, was the operative cause as to why Mr Blanco did the cartel’s bidding and became involved in the importation of cocaine.”

Blanco’s involvement in the syndicate was “aberrant behaviour” from a man who was otherwise a “valued working member of New Zealand society”.

Justice Cameron Mander said although it was not entirely clear, it appeared that as a result of the failed money laundering transaction in April 2021 he was held responsible for the lost cash, and a debt was imposed on him.

Authorities in Barcelona open a hot water cylinder used to hide cocaine.
POLICE / STUFF

“Your father’s business troubles may provide the reason for your actions, but certainly not an excuse.”

Justice Mander accepted a threat was made to Blanco’s father, but said there were questions as to the timing of the threat.

There was no evidence Blanco lived a lavish lifestyle in New Zealand, and the police investigation did not appear to determine what personal rewards, if any, were received by members of the syndicate, the judge said.

‘I feel worry and scared’

Blanco’s father says he continues to “live every day fearing for my life”.

“I understand that some money has gone missing and Esteban has been blamed for that. I worry that these men are going to turn up at my house one day and I will be killed. There is no point in going to the police because it is too dangerous,” his affidavit to the court says.

Blanco, now 36, regrets the decision to become involved with the drug syndicate, at what was a “desperate” time for his family.

Esteban Blanco fears he’ll be killed if he’s deported back to Colombia at the end of his sentence.
CHRIS SKELTON / STUFF

When he’s released from prison, he says he wants to start afresh, settle down, and start a family.

But he’s terrified of the prospect of being deported back to Colombia, where the debt he’s incurred to the cartel remains.

New Jersey City University assistant professor Dr Jonathan Rosen, an expert in organised crime groups in Colombia, reviewed the case as part of Blanco’s defence.

He says it highlights how people can “become property of a criminal organisation”.

“To me it’s a very sad story. I don’t view him as some criminal mastermind or some Pablo Escobar – he’s a farmer at the end of the day.”

Rosen, who has been an expert in about 200 deportation cases, says Blanco has every right to be “very concerned” about his future.

“If criminal organisations want to locate you, particularly in a place like Colombia, it’s easy to get the information.