By PATRICK GOWER
If he could be a type of beast, Waha Saifiti told his underworld sidekicks, he would be the kingfish.
Police said Saifiti was not so much a kingfish as the kingpin of a drugs syndicate that made and supplied speed to the Auckland market. He was the so-called chief
executive of "the Methamphetamine Makers Co. Ltd".
Yesterday, Saifiti and what the Crown called his business partner, production manager, senior managers and major dealers were convicted in one of the biggest drug cases Auckland has seen. They have been remanded in custody for sentencing next month.
After 11 weeks of evidence and two days and nights of deliberation, the jury returned their verdict - 2 1/2 years after police planted a bug in the lounge of Saifiti's rented Grey Lynn bungalow.
They believed the 50-year-old had organised a network of underworld figures, including members of the Headhunters gang, that was controlling much of the city's trade in "pure" methamphetamine or "P".
Police said the six weeks of recorded drug-fuelled ramblings and whispered conversations supported a theory that Saifiti, senior Headhunter Willie Hines and methamphetamine "cook" Brett Allison were planning a three-way split of a batch that could yield them hundreds of thousands of dollars each.
It seems the batch was never made - the trio were busy falling out over it when police swooped.
After raids across the city, police found the remnants of Allison's lab in Henderson. The 2000 litres of chemicals involved made it one of the biggest - and most explosive - drug laboratories ever found. It took officials wearing breathing apparatus seven days to pull apart. Its run-off waste alone contained 150 grams of methamphetamine claimed to be worth $150,000.
The trial opened a window on the workings of Auckland's criminal underworld.
Twice accused of masterminding two of New Zealand's biggest armed robberies, Saifiti was no stranger to big cases.
In the dock with him were Headhunters and King Cobra gang members, most of them with what police would call "serious form".
It was their second trial - the first was aborted after eight weeks when the jury was interfered with in a way not yet made public.
The jury listened to hours of bugged conversations from Saifiti's lounge.The transcript ran to 800 pages.
Against background sounds of "P" being smoked - the gas lighter burning, the glass pipes being tapped - were taped conversations about people staying awake for three weeks and about having goals of representing New Zealand at who could stay awake the longest.
And then there was Saifiti, who had allegedly turned his hand to the burgeoning methamphetamine trade - or at the very least, liked smoking it. Police found 73 grams of the drug, worth $73,000, at his house.
In an interview with the Weekend Herald, Saifiti, the father of seven children aged between 1 and 30, said he could not even remember many of the conversations because he was high on drugs. He had never had any drug convictions but tried "P" and became addicted.
In one bugged conversation, Saifiti told of being in a bank and bumping into a former police officer who was surprised to find he was not "eyeing up" the place.
"I sell amphetamines now," Saifiti told the former officer. "It beats robbing banks, I tell ya."
In other taped conversations, he called himself a time-traveller.
The police investigation was dubbed "Operation Flower" after officers gave their targets nicknames like Daisy, Tulip and Pansy.
They believed Saifiti was arranging the supply of ingredients for "Donut" Allison, an accomplished cook, and then organising a network of dealers to move the finished product. They thought Allison moved his lab around Auckland by truck, basing himself in industrial premises in Mt Wellington and Henderson.
The police say the bugged conversations show Saifiti and Hines became concerned about Allison's inability to make a batch. They were worried about their investment, particularly that others "were eating off their plate"; that Allison and their alleged "managers", patched Headhunters David Dunn and Dwayne Marsh, were skimming off the product.
An agitated Saifiti spoke of people "leaving the planet", of "punching dents in *****", of holding people under the water for a quarter of an hour and cutting off noses. .
Finally, a broke and concerned Saifiti and "Bird" Hines started talking about "whacking them over".
"Rest assured, we will not be made to look like fools here," said Saifiti. "We will just whack anybody who needs to be whacked ... Whack him straight on the spot."
The accused completely rejected the police theory. Most of them said it was not even their voices on the tape and if it was, their talk was nothing more than bravado. Some said they were just targeted because they were Headhunters and fitted the police's theories.
They claimed police had manipulated the transcripts. The transcriber, Sergeant Jason Mackie, and prosecution lawyers, were abused and heckled from the dock.
In the tapes, Saifiti told of knowing he was a police target. He told the Weekend Herald that police had labelled him "a godfather of crime" and the organiser of the 1991 robbery of $202,500 from the Birkenhead BNZ, but 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.
In the interview, Saifiti said he was not "lily-white" but did not deserve to be persecuted and have his lifestyle exaggerated.
The tapes appeared to tell a different story.
"We can liken ourselves to all types of beasts," he said on the tapes. "You can liken me to the kingfish."
By PATRICK GOWER
If he could be a type of beast, Waha Saifiti told his underworld sidekicks, he would be the kingfish.
Police said Saifiti was not so much a kingfish as the kingpin of a drugs syndicate that made and supplied speed to the Auckland market. He was the so-called chief
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