Police say the syndicate manufactured tens of thousands of pills. Photo / Sarah Ivey
Police say the syndicate manufactured tens of thousands of pills. Photo / Sarah Ivey
The identities of two police staff arrested after a covert police investigation targeting an alleged criminal syndicate selling thousands of Ecstasy pills each week can be revealed.
Name and occupation suppression for Darren Ian Hodgetts and Timothy John Russell Sarah was lifted in the Auckland District Court this morning afterthey chose to not pursue further secrecy.
The pair were among the 22 people charged in Operation Ark, a 12-month investigation targeting the manufacture and supply of Class-B drugs MDMA, or Ecstasy, and Class-C drugs 4-MEC, or mephedrone.
Both are non-sworn police staff and have been stood down pending an internal employment process. Hodgetts, 34, worked in the traffic section based in North Harbour.
He faces charges of participating in an organized criminal group, willfully perverting the course of justice by leaking police information to co-accused from the police computer network.
The 36-year-old Sarah was a police prosecutor based in the Auckland District Court. He faces 20 charges, including the possession and supply of methamphetamine, participating in an organized criminal group and passing information from the police computer system.
