A key figure in the infamous Mr Asia drug syndicate, which moved hundreds of kilograms of heroin during the 1970s, has died.
Errol John Hincksman passed away on Monday aged 62.
He was a central part of a drug ring which imported heroin into New Zealand, Australia and Britain.
The
syndicate's activities have since become the subject of the hit Underbelly television series.
Hincksman was one of the syndicate's strongmen, who sold drugs and kept discipline.
He met the syndicate's leader, Terry Clark, while doing time in Wi Tako (now Rimutaka) prison farm near Wellington in the early 1970s.
He would later recount how Clark talked of becoming the "Al Capone" of New Zealand.
Hincksman moved to Australia in 1978. He later revealed the syndicate imported bulk loads of heroin hidden in aircraft fuselage.
According to a royal commission of inquiry into drug trafficking, after one such job Hincksman was given the choice of $1000 cash or a 10g bag of heroin. He chose the cash.
Hincksman moved to the UK on a false passport in 1979.
He was arrested after police found him flaked out after a cocaine high during a raid on Clark's London mansion.
Clark was arrested for the murder of Aucklander Marty Johnstone during the same raid.
The arrest marked the end for the Mr Asia syndicate, which was estimated to have pocketed nearly a billion dollars in today's money terms.
Hincksman was jailed for almost a decade in England. After his release he moved back to Auckland.
* nicholas.jones@nzherald.co.nz
