Drug accused extradited from Europe

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Dutch and NZ police work in covert investigation into global P ring.

An Irishman accused of running a global drug ring which allegedly smuggled methamphetamine to a Queen St apartment has been extradited to Auckland to face criminal charges.

Michael O'Connor was arrested in the Netherlands last year by Dutch detectives co-operating with their New Zealand counterparts in a covert investigation named Operation Foxhole, with links to the Netherlands, Turkey, Iran and Japan.

O'Connor appeared in the Auckland District Court yesterday. He was charged with two counts of importing a Class-A drug and two counts of supply and remanded in custody until his next court appearance next month.

Court documents show Turkish police discovered a shipment of 10kg of methamphetamine to be delivered to the Quest apartment block in downtown Auckland and alerted Customs in June last year. Analysis of flight passenger movements of the name on the address identified a 30-year-old Brazilian national who stayed there in April and May.

Drug squad detectives trawled through his phone records, which identified text messages to a cellphone in the Netherlands, including the Queen St address of the apartment. The "catcher" had left New Zealand but returned in September and sent another text to the Netherlands with the same address.

A month later, Customs officers at Auckland Airport identified two suitcases sent from Turkey to the apartment block. More than 4kg of methamphetamine was hidden inside and a "controlled delivery" was set up.

The Brazilian was arrested and agreed to help police. According to his statement, the 30-year-old kept in touch with "the Europe guy" in the Netherlands, who told him to make two separate drug deliveries.

"The Europe guy" was identified as O'Connor by Netherlands police.

Operation Foxhole
• Michael O'Conner, an Irishman living in the Netherlands, arrested by Dutch police and extradited to NZ
• Faces two charges of importing a Class-A drug and two charges of supply.