Drug ring's prison headquarters

It seems it was easy for inmates at Paremoremo to combine their skills and contacts to import pseudoephedrine. Photo / Greg Bowker

A huge drugs case revealed how easy it was for inmates at Paremoremo to combine their skills and contacts to import pseudoephedrine to make P - all from behind bars.

Paremoremo is supposed to be the toughest prison in New Zealand. The home of murderers, rapists and gun-toting robbers, "Pare" (officially known as Auckland Prison at Paremoremo) is the only specialist maximum-security prison in the country.

But as a massive drugs case unfolding over the last few years proves, it also functions as a business school for society's most dangerous citizens. Five years after police began investigating, a court case concluded this week has revealed how a group of inmates pooled their knowledge, skills and contacts - both in and outside of prison - to import pseudoephedrine, which was later turned into methamphetamine.

Smuggled cellphones were used to call people in China and associates in Auckland, as well as other prisoners in the Waikato, Wanganui, Wellington and Christchurch - all under the noses of prison authorities.

This sprawling criminal network was unravelled only after police started looking for a missing man. Grant Trevor Adams' mother knew something was wrong when he failed to show for his daughter's birthday party. Adams was no angel but he was a loving father. Nicknamed "Granit", the 29-year-old was a skilled P cook with links to the Head Hunters and Filthy Few gangs and wanted by police for an assault on a pregnant woman.

No body had been found, but Tauranga detectives launched Operation Spider in March 2006 to find him. They heard whispers Adams was cooking methamphetamine with businessman Brett Michael Ashby and his brother-in-law Arthur William Taylor - who was inside Paremoremo prison at the time. Probably the most infamous criminal in New Zealand, Taylor made newspaper headlines as an armed bank robber and serial prison escape artist.

The High Court at Auckland granted interception warrants to allow police to bug the cellphones of Ashby and Taylor and eavesdrop on conversations. Ashby was later charged with murder. Police alleged the 50-year-old shot Adams with a semi-automatic pistol before burying his body with a digger in a construction site in Taupo. He denied the charge but never stood trial, dying from liver cancer in June 2009. But the tapped phone conversations between May and June 2007 revealed something even bigger.

A multimillion dollar P ring was operating inside New Zealand's maximum security prison, a widespread criminal network which reached into communities around the country. By listening to Taylor, police were able to establish his close connection to another high-ranking inmate Ulaiasi Pulete.

Better known as "Rocky", Pulete is the King Cobra gang leader with a lengthy rap sheet for armed robbery and drug importation. In fact, the Tongan giant was already serving a 14-year sentence for organising a drugs shipment worth nearly $1 million with smuggled cellphones while inside prison in 2001.

Taylor was heard talking to an inmate in Rimutaka prison in Wellington about "round things", the "big ones" for "12k". That's code for an ounce of methamphetamine - or 28g - which sold for around $12,000 at the time.

A career criminal in Wanganui prison, one of the godfathers of the underworld, also had a smuggled cellphone. Though he was not arrested in Operation Web, the 65-year-old is now facing methamphetamine charges in a separate police inquiry.

By May 2008, the business school moved to another level when a number of inmates were shifted into the same wing at Paremoremo prison. One was Wan Yee Chow, a 14K triad member convicted of a execution-style murder outside a karaoke bar on Symonds St in 2005. Known as "Tall Man", Chow was close to Wanzhe Gui, jailed for 13 years for kidnapping a woman and demanding $1 million ransom.

Another was Fraser Samuel Milham, inside for 10 years for a prolonged sex attack, and Michael Anthony Laumanu, serving preventive detention for raping a woman in her home at knifepoint in 2002. Laumanu, a King Cobra, was on parole for armed robbery at the time of the rape.

Two senior Killer Beez were also in the mix; one inside for murder, the other for violence and methamphetamine convictions.

But the syndicate needed help from those outside prison walls to make it happen.

Associates would smuggle cellphones, drugs and other contraband to the inmates to help run the business.

Others were involved in the day-to-day operations of the organisation, delivering cash, collecting debts and depositing money into bank accounts or other financial institutes.

Gui was in charge of organising pseudoephedrine imports from China, by calling a criminal associate "Fourth Elder" there.

Cold and flu medicine Contac NT is readily available in China and is the main source of pseudoephedrine used to make P in New Zealand.

Taped conversations between the pair revealed postal workers in China were bribed to turn a blind eye and the syndicate was concerned about smuggling drugs with tighter border security during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Chocolates, cakes, drink mix, shoes and clothing were used to disguise the Class C drug sent in 1kg courier packages to lower ranking Operation Web targets outside prison.

Between April and July 2008, eight packages of pseudoephedrine were intercepted by Customs officers - a total of 10kg. Three of those parcels were sent to a Manurewa address, organised by Kathleen Robyn Garrity, the partner of Fraser Milham, and another to a West Auckland home.

In his defence, Gui's lawyer Ron Mansfield said his client admitted importing pseudoephedrine but had nothing to do with the methamphetamine manufacture he was charged with.

In bugged conversations, Pulete was heard telling Garrity to meet a fellow King Cobra - who pleaded guilty but has name suppression because of another upcoming trial - to pick up drugs and deliver money.

When the gang member's home in Mt Wellington was searched on September 2008, police found 66g of methamphetamine, $5000 cash, plastic ziplock bags and 64g of pseudoephedrine.

Gui was later transferred to Spring Hill Correction Centre, with "Tall Man" but was still in regular contact with Pulete and others by cellphone.

The 42-year-old Pulete was also in touch with other inmates in the Waikato prison.

One of those was William Logan Johansson, convicted of the murders of Marcus Doig and John Vaughan in an armed robbery spree which terrorised Auckland in 2002. Another was Michael Dennis Baleitavuki, or "Rust", the ringleader of a crime ring called the Kings of Auckland.

The gang stole more than $1.2 million of high-performance cars, expensive art works, designer fashionwear, electronic goods in a string of audacious ram raid burglaries in 2004 and 2005.

Pulete also texted another Kings of Auckland member on parole, Travis Lowe, while Laumanu spoke with "Fijian Sam" in Paparoa prison in Christchurch.

No charges were laid against Chow, Johansson, Baleitavuki, Lowe or "Fijian Sam" - but the bugged conversations revealed how easily the prisoners talked to each other.

After an 18-month investigation, police were ready to make a move. More than 120 police officers, as well as 60 Customs and Corrections' staff, were involved on raids on 20 homes around Auckland and both prisons in September 2008.

Enough Contac NT to make 5kg of P was seized - at $1000 a gram, a street value of $5 million. It was probably a fraction of what was imported.

Nearly three years after charges were laid, and two trials later, Operation Web is all but over. Some of the accused were discharged before trial. Others, like Fraser Milham and the secret witness pleaded guilty early.

Most charges against Taylor were dropped, but he was convicted of conspiracy to supply methamphetamine with Pulete after a month long High Court trial in February. He is expected to appeal.

Pulete also eventually pleaded guilty to supply charges near the end of a marathon three-month trial which ended this week. Laumanu and Garrity also pleaded to supply charges, while the King Cobra with name suppression admitted possession charges.

Charges against two others, Killer Beez Ernest Tofaeono and Tai Bong Rhee, were dismissed by Justice Ed Wylie. Matthew Butland was found not guilty of conspiracy to supply methamphetamine.

However, the case is not closed. A new trial could be ordered for Gui: the 10-man jury was hung on his charge of manufacturing methamphetamine.

Mother's key role
Some of the key evidence against the drug ring came from a middle-aged mother from Manurewa who eventually pleaded guilty and agreed to be a Crown witness in the Operation Web trial.

Giving evidence against the inmates, the woman - whose identity is suppressed - said one of her sons was a Paremoremo prisoner with methamphetamine and violence convictions.

She said he and another inmate called "Jackie", or Gui, would call her from a cellphone and tell her to pick up packages left in letterboxes at different addresses around Auckland. Once at home, she opened the packages which held hand-towels, toilet rolls and toothpaste. She cut the end off the toothpaste tubes and poured out pink and yellow granules of pseudoephedrine which were then weighed and sorted into bags. The woman hid the Class C drugs in large bags under a dog kennel and passed the bags on separately to two men, "Travis" and "Morgan" several times each.

She said the meetings were organised by her son. Travis and Morgan would pay her $10,000 for each bag.

A few weeks after the pseudoephedrine changed hands, she would be supplied her "white", or methamphetamine, in a plastic container.

She sold the drugs in $100 or $200 amounts, one or two grams, and also told the court she supplied P to a woman called "Kat" who lived in West Auckland. "Kat" turned out to be Kathleen Robyn Garrity, the partner of Fraser Milham and a mother of three.

The secret witness also visited a money exchange on Queen St to deposit large amounts of cash, $10,000 to $30,000, every week or fortnight.

She would ring "Jackie", then pass the phone over to staff members to complete the transaction. Money was also deposited in TAB accounts and canteen accounts for prisoners, including Gui, Laumanu and her son.

One bugged conversation referred to $1 million profit for Gui.