Drug dealer's double life exposed

Steven John Baird owned a house in the upmarket Auckland suburb of Remuera. Photo / Brett Phibbs

A methamphetamine dealer owned a $2.4 million home with his young family while the drugs were cooked in the kitchen of a nearby motel at night.

Steven John Baird owned a successful business and house in the upmarket Auckland suburb of Remuera, with a Jaguar and Range Rover parked in the driveway.

But Operation Jacaranda exposed his double life in June 2009 and seized $2.7 million worth of assets from him. Drug squad detectives raided the Omahu Rd property and found $310,000 hidden under a mat in the concrete floor of a backyard shed.

The 42-year-old was the distributor for a drug syndicate headed by Zhong Jie Tang, 30, who leased the Jacaranda Motor Inn in Epsom. Tang, also known as Victor, was the principal target of the police investigation which tapped cellphones and set up surveillance cameras around the motel to gather evidence. They discovered that Tang was using the restaurant kitchen as a laboratory to extract pseudoephedrine - the main ingredient in P - as well as to make methamphetamine
itself.

All the ingredients, equipment and chemicals were stored in the attic above the kitchen, then assembled at night after the restaurant had closed.

The extracted pseudoephedrine was then shifted to a rural property north of Auckland to be "cooked" into methamphetamine at the largest "clan lab" found in this country.

Labs such as those found in the motel kitchen are extremely dangerous because of the explosive nature of the chemicals used. Bugged text messages and phone calls show Tang was in weekly contact with Terrence Arthur Sims, who boasted he was the best P cook in Auckland. Sims was in charge of making the drug, which was referred to in code as "going fishing". The 49-year-old was often seen in a Nissan Skyline at the Jacaranda Motel, where chemicals, ingredients, drugs and money were exchanged with Tang and other members of the syndicate.

When Sims' property in Kaukapakapa was raided,it took police and ESR staff five days to dismantle the clandestine laboratory. Four truckloads of chemicals were removed from the site.

Sims would take the finished product to the Jacaranda Motel, where Baird would later arrive in his black Range Rover to uplift the drugs from Tang in ounce amounts. An ounce, or 28 grams, sells for around $12,000 at wholesale level. At street level, methamphetamine is worth $1000 a gram.

While Tang, Sims and Baird were the crucial trio of the syndicate, other members helped run the drug conspiracy. Auckland men Jialin Wu, 30, Wenbin Gu, 47, and Robert Jones, 43, were responsible for arranging chemicals and equipment needed to make P. All six men were found guilty of multiple charges of manufacture and supply of the Class-A drug after trial at the High Court at Auckland.

Tang, Gu and Wu were also found guilty of possession of the drug and possession of manufacturing equipment and chemicals.

Gu and Wu were found in the restaurant at the Jacaranda trying to flush drugs down the toilet and sink.

Sims was also found guilty of possession of precursor equipment, found under floorboards when a carpet was pulled back.

The maximum sentence for manufacture and supply is life imprisonment.

Steven Baird's home in Remuera is restrained under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act and recently sold for $2.4 million.

The police are now seeking the forfeiture of the house money, as well as the $310,000 found hidden in the shed.

Baird was the sole director of NZ Entertainment Services, a party equipment and sound system hire business - the perfect cover for his drug supply.

Detective Sergeant Mark Osbourne, the officer in charge, said the kitchen clan lab had to be decontaminated.

"The owner obviously had no idea what was going on, to be fair. Most of the activity took place at night after the restaurant had closed."

Kingpin no stranger to trafficking

It's not the first time Steven Baird has been convicted of serious drug dealing. In July 2009, a month after his arrest in Operation Jacaranda, he was sentenced to six years, eight months' jail for possession of P, heroin and LSD for supply.

Police found more than 50g of P, 6.1g of heroin and 921 LSD tabs in a concealed compartment of a can. Justice Graham Lang gave a shorter sentence with no minimum non-parole period because of his guilty plea and "determination to see your family right ...

If you ever appear for sentence again on this type of offending, it would be absolutely inevitable that a minimum term of imprisonment would be imposed".