Body found in hunt for missing man Ronny Okeke, police treating death as suspicious

• Ronny Okeke, 60, was last seen walking out of the New World supermarket in Mt Roskill on April 27.
• Okeke was charged with two counts of money laundering and was involved in an altercation on the day he disappeared.
• The investigation into Okeke moved to the southern Auckland and Waikato area.

Police have found the body of missing Auckland man Ronny Okeke and are now treating the death as suspicious.

Police said yesterday the investigation team and Police Search and Rescue had been searching parts of the Kaimai Ranges.

The location the body was found was some 130km from where Okeke was last spotted in Sandringham in late April.

Auckland CIB Detective Inspector Glenn Baldwin said inquiries led the team to carry out a search that resulted in finding the body.

He said police came across the body after searching a section of bush in the Kaimai Range.

“A scene examination has been conducted and the body has now been removed from the site.

”Formal identification procedures still need to be carried out, however based on the information we have gathered to this point in the investigation we believe that this is Ronny.”

Baldwin said police had spoken with Okeke’s family in Nigeria overnight.

“This is news that no family ever wants to hear, and they are devastated that Ronny will not be coming home,” he said.

”A post-mortem is scheduled to take place over the coming days, and this will hopefully assist our team in shedding some light around Okeke’s death.”

The photo capturing one of the last times Ronny Okeke was seen in public on April 27 in Mt Roskill, Auckland. He was reported missing on May 3.

Police earlier said they believed he was involved in an altercation on or around April 27, the day he was last seen, but have not revealed the other party or parties in the dispute.

”What we do know is that this altercation occurred, and Ronny has not been heard from since,” Baldwin said last week.

During the inquiry into his disappearance police repeatedly said they had grave concerns for him.

Baldwin said police were committed to finding what happened surrounding the death.

”Police have previously executed search warrants and spoken with a person of interest in this investigation.

”A forensic examination of Ronny’s mobile phone is continuing after it was recovered as part of inquiries in previous weeks.”

Police wanted to hear from anyone with information about Okeke’s death.

Okeke, 60, was charged as part of a major money laundering operation in 2021, but the charges were dropped later that year.

Money laundering charges

Okeke was charged with two counts of money laundering as part of Operation Ida in May 2021.

Operation Ida was a sprawling police operation targeting a woman who laundered millions for a transnational drug syndicate from a Newmarket money remittance business.

Police alleged Okeke was involved in using the remittance business to transfer more than $250,000 in cash to China without proper checks being performed as required by the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act.

However, the two money laundering charges he faced were dropped by the prosecution later in 2021, the Auckland District Court confirmed.

He had previously been before the courts, the Herald understands.

Court documents obtained by the Herald show the more than $250,000 of cash police alleged Okeke transferred to China was the proceeds of crime.

At the time he was charged in 2021, Okeke was listed in court documents as living in a central Auckland flat but has since moved to Sandringham. He was unemployed when he was charged.