$18m Ecstasy case collapses over police silence on informer

A multimillion-dollar drugs trial in the High Court at Auckland has been aborted because the police have refused to reveal the identity of an informer.

It is the second time the case, involving two South Africans and a Zimbabwean charged with importing up to $18 million worth of the drug Ecstasy, has collapsed.

A third trial is likely to be held early next year on 21 charges of importing and selling Ecstasy and money laundering.

The question of whether the police have to reveal the name of the informant in relation to two other charges of importing and having Ecstasy for supply will be decided by a full bench of the Court of Appeal in October.

Yesterday, in the High Court at Auckland, Justice Mark O'Regan directed the jury to return not guilty verdicts against South Africans Alexander Gavin Smith, aged 36, on both those counts and Edward Wilcocks, 48, on the charge of possession of the drug for supply.

A directed verdict means that the two charges can be laid again if the Court of Appeal rules police do not have to reveal the informant's name.

In abandoning the trial, Justice O'Regan told the jury that he had ruled that Smith's lawyer, Rob Harrison, could cross-examine police officers about the identity of their source.

But the police had a policy of not disclosing the names of informants and prosecutors Ross Burns and David Johnstone had decided to offer no evidence on those two counts.

The Crown, however, had asked the judge to direct verdicts of not guilty so that the issue could be tested by a panel of five Court of Appeal judges.

Justice O'Regan said he had agreed that the issue should be determined by the higher court as there was little case law on the subject.

Outside the court Mr Harrison said: "The defence contention was that it was necessary to know who the informant was because the accused, Mr Smith, alleged he had been set up by the informant, and that the informant was actually the importer." It is understood that this is the first time that a court has ordered the police to name an informer.

The secret information related to a May 2002 shipment of drugs from Durban - allegedly the last of seven consignments - which the police say contained 36,000 tablets with a street value of between $2.2 million and $2.8 million.

The other six importing charges were laid after the police worked back through shipping and travel documents from South Africa over the previous 2 1/2 years following the drug seizure at an Albany lock-up unit.

Police believe that the earlier shipments contained about the same number of tablets, making the total street value about $18 million.

In addition to the importing charge, Smith faced six other importing charges jointly with 51-year-old former Zimbabwean Robert Charles De Bruin.

They also faced charges of selling Ecstasy and laundering drug money.

Yesterday, Wilcocks was served with a removal order from New Zealand. The police will have to bring him back if the Court of Appeal orders a retrial on his charge.

De Bruin was given bail and Smith is to apply for bail.