Drug accused's $1m boast

A Headhunters gang member bragged of making $1 million a year from dealing in the drug speed, a court heard yesterday.

Peter William Cleven is charged with supplying methamphetamine (speed) between 1997 and 1999, and selling cannabis for 12 years between 1988 and 2000.

Justice John Laurenson has ordered that the jurors be held at a location together for the duration of the two-week trial in the High Court at Auckland.

The 39-year-old Titirangi accused was arrested after detectives from the Auckland organised crime squad bugged conversations at his $880,000 home between late 1999 and early 2000.

In one recorded conversation Cleven, known by the nickname "Pedro", told a woman called Simone: "Over the years, I used to deal a hundred pound [45.3kg] of dak a week ... I'll just tell you this just to give you an idea, I've done a million dollars worth of 'this' a year."

The crown alleges that the 45.3kg of cannabis could be worth up to $500,000 and that 'this' referred to methamphetamine.

Crown prosecutor Kevin Glubb said its case was based on "frank, unguarded, highly incriminating intercepted conversations", traces of methamphetamine found on a set of scales at Cleven's house, and his "conspicuous wealth".

"This is drug dealing on a large and organised scale".

Mr Glubb, appearing with Ross Burns, said a police financial analyst would say that Cleven had an unexplained income of $290,000 over the past few years.

Cleven is also jointly charged with a "prospect" in the West Auckland-based gang, 35-year-old Darren John Simmons, also known as Darren Fussey, with possessing 7.7kg of cannabis on Christmas Day 1999.

In a taped conversation, Cleven allegedly told Simmons about digging up 7.7kg of cannabis the prospect had buried and been unable to find.

Simmons replied that the find would enable him to buy a $22,000 Harley Davidson motorcycle from imprisoned Headhunters member Wayne Doyle.

Cleven also told Simmons: "There's no competition. No one can do what I'm doing ... We should have a 'Headhunter of the year', to see who made the most through the year."

In another conversation, it was claimed Cleven talked of being able to afford to buy the Auckland strip club Showgirls for $3 million.

The crown alleges that the recorded conversations are peppered with underworld jargon and code for illicit drugs, such as the term "blow", as well as background scraping and tapping noises consistent with the "cutting, mixing and bagging of methamphetamine use".

There are also snorting noises along with the heating of plates in a microwave that the crown say are related to the use of the drug.

Cleven's lawyer Peter Neutze said the taped recordings were "baseless boasts, just him talking it up in front of a couple of girls".

Mr Neutze said the scraping noises police alleged was methamphetamine being "cut" were noises from the kitchen.

The so-called unexplained income had come from "hard work and property development".

For Simmons, Ron Mansfield said the conversation about the 7.7kg of cannabis was actually about $17,000 worth of cash he had lost, $12,000 of which was found when police stormed Cleven's address at the end of the investigation, dubbed Operation Mexico.