Martin Johnstone, known as 'Mr Asia', was at the centre of heroin syndicate that changed drug culture in New Zealand
Composite photo / NZME
Marty Johnstone, known as ‘Mr Asia’, led a global heroin empire in the 1970s.
Johnstone was murdered in 1979 by Andy Maher, under orders from his partner-in-crime Terry Clark.
Mr Asia: A Forgotten History, a podcast by John Daniell and Noelle McCarthy, explores the gang’s rise and fall.
For much of the 1970s, Marty Johnstone operated as one of New Zealand’s most notorious drug dealers.
Dubbed ‘Mr Asia’ by journalists at the now defunct Auckland Star newspaper, Johnstone rose from North Shore menswear salesman to head of a global heroin empire.
But his life at the topwas short lived. In November 1979, his mutilated body was found in a quarry in Lancashire, England. He was just 27 when he was murdered, killed by his best friend, Andy Maher.
It soon turned out Maher was only following orders. For while Johnstone was the face of the Mr Asia gang, behind the scenes, Terry Clark was the man pulling all the strings – and ordering the deaths of those who wronged him.
The epic rise and rapid fall of the country’s most infamous drug gang is retold in Mr Asia: A Forgotten History, a new six-part podcast series from the New Zealand Herald and Bird of Paradise Productions.
Hosted by John Daniell and Noelle McCarthy, the series tracks how Marty and Terry came to cross paths, the friendship they built as they took their empire around the world, and how jealousy and betrayal brought it all crashing down.
Watch the head of NZ police’s National Organised Crime Group below on how today’s methamphetamine threat compares to the Mr Asia heroin syndicate and read the full story here.
