One of Auckland's most notorious underworld figures, bank robber and drug dealer Waha Saifiti, has been freed on parole.
Saifiti was released on Monday from Auckland Prison at Paremoremo, where he was serving a 9 1/2-year sentence for manufacturing methamphetamine and conspiracy to supply it.
He had been
in jail for more than six years after his arrest in late 2001 as one of the main targets of a police operation codenamed Operation Flower.
It was one of the first big investigations into the making and distribution of P by gangs and organised crime.
Saifiti was convicted in 2003 after a marathon trial in which the Crown said he was the "chief executive" of "the Methamphetamine Makers Co Ltd". Saifiti, now in his mid-fifties, is one of the first parolees to have to comply with new powers given to the Parole Board after the Graeme Burton case.
He will have to report back to the board for a "progress hearing" in August at which he can be returned to prison immediately if the board is not satisfied with his progress.
The Parole Board said Saifiti had reached a "determinative" date at which he had to be released.
The board had seen him seven times in the past two years. One of the conditions is that Saifiti be assessed for a "criminogenic programme" that will address factors associated with his offending.
Formerly of Grey Lynn, Saifiti has previously been labelled the organiser of the 1991 robbery of $202,500 from the Birkenhead BNZ, although police never got him to court.
He was convicted for his part in the 1992 robbery of $480,000 from a security van on Auckland's Anzac Ave but police never recovered any of the money.
The Operation Flower investigation involved bugging Saifiti's home and recording conversations included Saifiti speaking of people "leaving the planet", of holding people under the water for a quarter of an hour and cutting off noses.
"We can liken ourselves to all types of beasts," he said on the tapes. "You can liken me to the kingfish."
