Bikie drug boss deported to NZ

Colin David Picard outside the Launceston Supreme Court in Hobart, Tasmania. Photo / News Corp

A convicted drug trafficker and bikie gang leader has been deported to New Zealand after his Australian visa was cancelled on character grounds.

Colin David Picard, 69, is the latest Kiwi to be exiled to his homeland after Australia's Government introduced new immigration measures.

The former state president of the Rebels in Tasmania arrived in Auckland on a commercial flight yesterday.

NZ police said they did not comment on the identity of returning individuals.

Tasmanian newspaper The Mercury said it understood Picard was taken from Risdon Prison yesterday morning and on to the airport.

It is understood Picard agreed to go of his own accord after losing his visa appeal in the Federal Court in December. With no visa the penniless, sick, "retired" bikie boss had few options.

In 2010, Tasmania police began investigating the organised trafficking of methamphetamine into Tasmania and found a network which saw drugs sourced from the mainland and on-sold to Picard.

After he admitted trafficking 1kg of meth with a street value estimated at between A$128,000 ($136,555) and A$504,400, he was sentenced to three years jail, 18 months non-parole, in 2013.

Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said: "Mr Picard represents an unacceptable risk of harm to the Australian community."

- News Ltd Australia