Arrest warrants issued for alleged Auckland drug kingpin Andre Francis James in Mexico

An alleged drug kingpin who fled New Zealand before he could be arrested is now believed to be living in Mexico, the Herald can reveal.

Andre Francis James was the main target in a covert police investigation, Operation Maddale, into the wholesale distribution of methamphetamine in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in 2019.

He was selling imported cars at a yard in New Lynn, which doubled as a front for an alleged drug dealing business.

Gang members and other criminals were caught on camera exchanging packages of drugs and cash with James and his right-hand man at the Auckland premises.

Drugs were also hidden inside secret compartments in the dashboard area of some of the cars - which could only be opened with an electronic key - then driven to buyers in Wellington and Christchurch.

Operation Maddale ended in August 2019 with the arrest of a dozen individuals, the seizure of 20kg of meth and more than $1 million in assets and cash.

Members of the Head Hunter, Mongrel Mob, King Cobra and Comanchero gangs were convicted of drug dealing and money laundering offences, including Khalid Slaimankhel, who was sentenced to six years in prison.

The Comancheros later targeted innocent members of Slaimankhel’s family with gunfire when he tried to leave the gang without paying a perceived debt.

Wellington drug dealer Kenny Leslie McMillan was also convicted of buying more than 10kg of drugs from James and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Police also seized $340,000 of McMillan’s assets, including a 42-foot launch.

Despite allegedly orchestrating the nationwide drug supply chain and banking more than $800,000 in cash in just two years, Andre James was not among those convicted.

He left New Zealand in the middle of Operation Maddale and had not returned by the end of the 10-month investigation, so police were unable to arrest him.

Six years have passed without any trace of James in New Zealand.

But new criminal charges were laid against him earlier this month after another covert investigation run by detectives in the National Organised Crime Group.

Court documents show James, now 48, is alleged to have imported methamphetamine and MDMA into New Zealand in late 2022.

James’ alleged co-offender in Operation Detroit is a 501 deportee from Australia with links to the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang. He is due to stand trial in July next year.

The address given for James on the court documents is simply listed as Mexico.

He did not appear in the Auckland District Court and a spokesperson for the police confirmed that arrest warrants had been issued against James for “significant drug trafficking.”

However, the spokesperson declined to comment on whether police would now lodge a “Red Notice” border alert with Interpol, or seek assistance from Mexican authorities to extradite James back to New Zealand.

Wellington-based drug supplier Kenny Leslie McMillan has had nearly $340,000 in assets seized, including a 42-foot yacht and high-end art, and could stand to lose more than $2.5 million more. Photo / NZ Police

In recent years, Mexico has emerged as one of the main source countries for methamphetamine smuggled into New Zealand.

This is because a kilogram of meth, which might cost a few thousand dollars in Mexico, can command anywhere between $80,000 to $150,000 in New Zealand depending on market conditions.

These profits attracted the attention of global organised crime groups such as Mexican cartels, Australian outlaw motorcycle gangs such as the Comancheros and Mongols, as well as Asian drug syndicates.

“These groups and individuals are bringing new expertise, access to global networks, and a greater willingness to use intimidation, firearms and other violence, and coercion to achieve their ends,” a ministerial advisory group told Cabinet Minister Casey Costello earlier this year.

There was a correlation between New Zealand’s main trading routes and “crime corridors”, the advisory group wrote, with the Pacific Islands increasingly being used as a gateway.

The involvement of sophisticated crime networks with control of commercial-scale drug laboratories overseas is reflected in a string of record-breaking busts in New Zealand.

For many years, the largest shipment of meth found in New Zealand was 95kg in 2006.

Operation Major dwarfed every other seizure for the next decade and was seen as an outlier until 501kg was found near Ninety Mile Beach in 2016.

Since then, seizures of more than 500kg have become almost routine.

The current record of 713kg was found inside maple syrup bottles shipped from Canada in early 2023.

But despite more drugs being seized than ever before, the consumption of methamphetamine more than doubled in 2024 to the highest levels recorded in national wastewater testing, as previously revealed by the Herald.

In June last year, just over 15kg of meth was being detected each week. For the next six months, weekly consumption exceeded 29kg and peaked at 39kg in October.

“Availability of methamphetamine is one indicator that organised crime is thriving in New Zealand,” the ministerial advisory group told Costello in March.

“This is sadly having a devastating impact on the lives of many New Zealanders.”

Jared Savage covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006 and has won a dozen journalism awards in that time, including twice being named Reporter of the Year. He is also the author of Gangland, Gangster’s Paradise and Underworld.