Customs link in smugglers' $17m P plot

ContacNT. Photo / Supplied

A Customs broker has been charged with helping smuggle drugs worth up to $17 million in machine parts arriving at Auckland International Airport.

Bo "Kevin" Niu appeared in Auckland District Court this week charged with possession and supply of the class C drug pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in methamphetamine, or P.

The 27-year-old was committed to stand trial with co-accused students Lei "Aaron" Chen, Yixiang "Ethan" Zhang and Tong "Ivan" Liu and will appear in court again next month.

Working at a Customs brokerage firm near the airport, Niu was allegedly the only staff member working with EJ Trading Ltd which imported 145kg of machinery parts from Hong Kong in March.

Police say Niu took the machine parts before they could be examined by Customs Service officers, removed approximately 10kg of ContacNT - cold medicine from China which contains pseudoephedrine. He then allegedly returned the empty parts, stainless steel axles, to be checked by border control.

But the following day, Customs staff allegedly found 50 grams of loose ContacNT granules in the packages. Nothing was mentioned to Niu and the name EJ Trading Ltd was put on an alert system by Customs so following imports could be watched. Ten days later, the alleged drug syndicate shipped 135kg of machine parts - 10kg less than all the previous imports - which was covertly searched by Customs. Nothing was found and Operation Warbird detectives decided it was a decoy, so police followed Lei Chen when he picked the package up.

He was tailed back to his Mt Roskill home, where co-accused Yixiang Zhan and Ton Liu also lived. A week later, a third shipment weighing 145kg arrived for EJ Trading from Hong Kong, another a fortnight later on April 15, then another a week later.

Due to the eruption of a volcano in Iceland that disrupted flights around the world, the final shipment was delayed by one day - which a staff member from EJ Trading allegedly did not believe when calling the broker.

Customs officers found 10kg of ContacNT hidden inside the metal cylinders and decided to conduct a controlled delivery to the alleged drug syndicate.

Police allegedly found the drugs in Chen's car.

Customs records show that EJ Trading made 28 similar imports of 145kg of machine parts - allegedly with 10kg of drugs hidden inside - between April 2009 and 2010.

Police allege 320kg of pseudoephedrine was smuggled over 12 months, with an estimated street value of $11 to $17 million.