FEARS TROOPS SMUGGLED WEAPONS

A weapons cache recovered from the home of a Christchurch cannabis
grower came from military stocks, an inquiry has found, prompting
fears soldiers may be smuggling arms off bases.

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) has started an internal
investigation into how the munitions, including a fragmentation
grenade, ended up in the possession of Kenneth Daniel Hawkins, 38, who
was yesterday sentenced to two years jail.

"We are not America and do not have the right to bear arms as of
right," Christchurch District Court Judge David Saunders said in
sentencing Hawkins under the Arms Act. The judge accepted that
Hawkins, who was also found guilty of making a class B drug and
possessing and cultivating cannabis, had stored the military items as
a favour to a friend.

The judge said Hawkins's cannabis use was unusually heavy and he must
have lived in a "fool's paradise", divorced from reality.

Police and military investigators said Hawkins had given insufficient
explanation of how he came by the weapons.

"The investigation has established that the devices he has been
charged with have come from New Zealand Army supplies," said Detective
Sergeant Stuart McGowan.

Defence Minister Phil Goff did not answer a request for
comment.

Army spokeswoman Major Denise Mackay said the lot numbers on the
munitions matched those that should have been in well-guarded army
stockpiles.

"We are confident that we have robust ammunition-control procedures
and, obviously, military police are now focusing on establishing how
and when the ammunition left the care of the New Zealand Army," she
said. "We would assume that it would be theft."

She said the inquiry was looking at the possibility that NZDF
personnel were involved, as only they had access to munitions stores.

"I guess it would be fair to say that regardless of how good your
procedures are, and how much trust you place in your people, and how
professional you expect them to be, there is always a remote
possibility that people who are in the know will have some way of
undertaking bad things before they get discovered."

On April 11, Callan Place in Hoon Hay was cordoned for more than a day
while police and army bomb-disposal experts were called in to make
Hawkins's property safe. Most of the munitions were of a type not on
sale to civilians and restricted to military use. Hawkins did not hold
a firearms licence and did not have a military background. Another
cache of military weapons was found in mid-May in a Wellington house.
That case is still under investigation.

The Press understands that soldiers have been known to take
"souvenirs" from exercises.

"There was an exercise I was involved in where the people responsible
for security of the ammunition stashed a lot of it and went and
recovered it later," said one former soldier, who asked not to be
identified.