Comancheros trial: Defence begins closing argument

Connor Clausen during the first day of the Comancheros Operation Nova trial at the Auckland High Court. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Defence lawyers have begun addressing the jury as the four-week trial involving the New Zealand Comancheros president edges closer to an end.

Gang head Pasilika Naufahu and fellow member Connor Clausen were arrested last year after a covert police investigation dubbed Operation Nova.

Both men are charged with conspiring to supply the Class B drug pseudoephedrine in September 2018.

Clausen's lawyer Simon Lance said the jury had not heard much from his defence during the high-profile trial.

But it was not because he was not paying attention, he said.

It was because there was very little evidence relating to his client, he said.

There had been screeds of information in the case on the back of a "lengthy, thorough and very well-resourced" police investigation that spanned 15 months.

Lance said the investigation had involved plain clothes police officers just like those depicted in the movies.

There were also bugged cars, intercepted calls and CCTV footage from various places including airports and banks, he said.

"Yet, Mr Connor Clausen features for two minutes and 19 seconds," Lance said.

"Nothing earlier. Nothing later."

The covert video replayed to the court today shows a meeting between an alleged drug smuggler, an Australian hairdresser named He Sha and Clausen.

Sha has already been convicted and jailed over his actions.

Australian hairdresser He Sha (centre in mask). Photo / Sam Hurley

What Clausen was shown doing on the police surveillance video - briefly getting out of a car - was not criminal, Lance said.

There was no exchange of drugs, he said, and there was no "mythical one million dollars".

Nevertheless, seven months later, Clausen's "rather modest" home - "I'm not even sure if he owns it" - was searched.

Connor Clausen pictured during the first day of the Operation Nova trial in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / Brett Phibbs

There were no drugs, no money, and no bag, Lance said.

"It seems a little random as to who gets charged in this operation."

Maybe anyone associated with the name Comancheros gets charged, he suggested.

Lance took aim at the alleged drug smuggler heard talking to Sha in a bugged conversation saying he was probably trying to rip the latter off.

"That's why he was so ridden with angst when the alleged pseudoephedrine didn't come," he said.

"He is full of rubbish. He is a bignoter.

"I invite you to treat what he says with extreme caution.

"He is not a credible or reliable person."

The trial for the defendants began on September 7 in the High Court at Auckland. Photo / File

Earlier today, Crown prosecutor David Johnstone said the evidence shown to the jury about the alleged drug conspiracy included some "pretty remarkable stuff".

He suggested it was not often police captured on video "a drug deal that came that close to being completed".

Johnstone said it was "no accident" that Clausen was there.

The Crown alleges Clausen was supposed to deliver the money, inspect the pseudoephedrine and take it to the Comancheros president.

Johnstone also told the jury the woman on trial - who has name suppression - must have had suspicions about where the money she was depositing was coming from.

She faces one representative charge of laundering $292,496 between July and August 2018.

"It is an odd job isn't it? Being paid to deposit money," Johnstone said.

Her defence lawyer Paul Heaslip argued she believed what she was doing was legal, as her friend (the key money handler involved) had taken legal advice from Andrew Simpson.

"He [the money handler] believed banking the money was fair and legal."

Then lawyer Andrew Simpson helped the gang. Photo / Sam Hurley

He even later apologised to the woman for getting her involved, Heaslip said.

She was down on her luck and had been offered to be paid handsomely at the time, he said.

Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield is expected to close the defence case on Monday.

He represents Naufahu, who is also accused of two charges of money laundering, one in respect of a Ford Ranger and the other in respect of a $102,075 Bentley.

Pasilika Naufahu, Comanchero MC president, pictured during the first day of his trial. Photo / Brett Phibbs