Apart from the drugs charges, Chea and Dao were charged with receiving stolen goods including an iPhone, iPad and three laptops.
A jury of eight men and four women was sworn in before the defendants pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Prosecutor Kate Feltham told the High Court at Wellington today the Crown would call 53 witnesses.
About half of those were police but others were from telecommunications and courier companies.
Ms Feltham outlined the Crown's view of how the three men allegedly imported drugs.
"Their plan was to take the meth, mix it with some inorganic substance like plaster and then add a green dye."
She said they effectively ended up with a "solid green object" labelled as "Green J" when it was sent to New Zealand.
Ms Feltham said the accused then reversed the process, soaking the powder in alcohol or an acetone solution, allowing methamphetamine to be drawn out of the powder.
She said the process was called recrystallisation.
The Crown alleged the first importation was in 2013.
Ms Feltham said Chea and Dao used contacts in Vietnam and Canada to arrange for drugs to be sent to New Zealand.
The Crown claimed the first package was sent to a house in Priscilla Crescent, Kingston, where a landslip had affected homes and left some vacant.
The package arrived and Feltham said on July 25, 2013, Debreceny contacted a courier driver and arranged to have the package redirected.
The Crown alleged Debreceny then passed on the package to Chea and Dao, who started the recrystallisation.
The second importation allegedly began in September 2013 but the courier driver had by then changed routes so the redirection of that package was unsuccessful, Ms Feltham said.
The prosecution said a third package was sent to an empty section on Brooklyn's Ohio Rd, addressed to a "Jessica Mendoza."
Ms Feltham also described the prosecution's view of how the Chews Lane raid on Dao and Chea's apartment happened.
"As soon as police entered the apartment they noticed a very strong smell of solvent coming from the kitchen."
Police said they then found a brown heated liquid in a casserole dish.
"They declared an emergency and evacuated the apartment."
Ms Feltham said police were so concerned, they arranged for the entire building to be evacuated.
As police and firefighters swarmed the area, stunned residents of the apartment block left the building, some still in their dressing gowns.
One person caught up in the raid tried fleeing, and allegedly tried to dump a package of meth worth $28,000 in a rubbish bin. Police caught him later.
Electric blenders and various glassware items were found, all of which later tested positive for methamphetamine, Ms Feltham said.
A bag containing about $39,000 in cash was also located.
Ms Feltham said in Dao's apartment, various cash stashes were found. These included $1500 in one box, just over $400 in another, and just over $1000 cash sitting on a shelf.
She said police also located "a very large number of electronic items" as well as SIM cards.
Ms Feltham said police found $11,200 on Chea.
Later, police learned Chea was renting a bedroom in Taranaki St, where more glass jars and containers later found to be meth-contaminated were found.
Police also searched Chea, Dao and Cummins' vehicles.
Ms Feltham said 1.138kg of meth worth over $1m was found in searches after the Chews Lane raid.
On March 20 last year, police returned to Chews Lane with Cummins, who wanted help retrieving some items left in the apartment.
Inside a make-up case, police allegedly discovered another plastic bag, this one with more methamphetamine missed in the first search.
Ms Feltham said Chea declined to be formally interviewed. Dao agreed to be interviewed three different times, in which he denied all knowledge of meth being at his address or his vehicle.
Debreceny also denied any knowledge of meth or meth importation, Ms Feltham said.
Cummins also denied any knowledge of the meth, including that in her make-up case.
Defence lawyers Keith Jefferies, Tony Rickard-Simms and Chris Tennet were expected to address the court later.
Justice Robert Dobson told the court the trial could take up to two weeks.
