![]() ![]() The Crown says Treasurer went by the alias Gold, perhaps due to the colour of his BMW. They went to collect their money from a man called “Gold”, whom the witness described as a skinny man of African descent. The man from across the ditch was described in court as having an oily complexion and an uncanny knack for making the Class A drug.Īfter two days and nights of cooking meth at the shack, where the illicit chemists stayed awake the whole time, Aussie Dave gave him a ride back to Auckland, the witness said. He discovered he was part of a large-scale methamphetamine production led by an alleged cook called “Aussie Dave”. It was not an island but rather a clearing with a shack hidden in the bush at Whangaruru, a remote peninsula and harbour southeast of Paihia. “My first job was basically I was dropped off at the end of a road up north with a half a kilo of ephedrine, and left on the side of the road, and some people came and picked me up and we went on a boat to what I was told was an island.” His wife had lost her job and a childhood friend of his moved in with the couple.Ī witness said he thought the shack was on an island but it turned out to be on a peninsula in Whangaruru, Northland. Like other witnesses, the man said he was drawn into the operation while he was battling financially. The drug runner, who told the court how Auckland traffic limited deliveries, was the third of several co-operating witnesses to be called by the Crown.Īll received immunity from prosecution on certain charges and most received lighter sentences for their role in the syndicate in exchange for co-operation. This week the jury heard from a former intelligence agent who administered polygraph tests to people allegedly working for Valent and a man who said he was making up to 20 meth deliveries per day for the kingpin - a number only limited by Auckland traffic. On Friday, with the Crown case still going, the third week of the trial wrapped. ![]() A warning to "keep out" is emblazoned on a door. His defence lawyers have asked the jury not to see him as simply “guilty by association”.Ī photograph taken by police of a shack in Whangaruru where minions of alleged drug kingpin Xavier Valent are alleged to have cooked methamphetamine. Terrique Treasurer, who is standing trial alongside Valent and alleged to be a key lieutenant in the operation, has also pleaded not guilty. He faces a life sentence if convicted and denies all charges. Valent, an Auckland Grammar alumnus, is standing trial in the Auckland High Court facing more than 100 serious drug charges, covering the importation, supply and manufacture of various Class A and B drugs. The Herald on Sunday has been granted exclusive access by the High Court to photos taken by police specialists of the Whangaruru shack the Crown alleges was used by people working at the behest of Xavier Valent, aka Harry Whitehead. It looked like a forgotten shack in the middle of nowhere.īut the decrepit hut tucked away in a remote corner of bush in Northland was in fact a meth production hub for one of New Zealand’s largest ever drug syndicates, a jury has heard. The trial of alleged jet-setting drug lord Xavier Valent has turned the spotlight on the lives of ordinary New Zealanders who become pawns in the methamphetamine trade.īut will evidence of a secret Northland meth lab, harried drug runners and a former spy turned polygraph examiner convince a jury to convict the former Auckland Grammar boy? George Block reports. Ten people arrested, $5 million of drugs seized in Operation Mystic.
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