Auckland heroin find from Coast?
PA Auckland The SIM heroin cache seized by police in South Auckland may be part of the big consignment smuggled ashore at Westport six weeks ago.
Police are looking for links between last week’s seizing of top-quality heroin and the larger consignment allegedly brought here in the vacht Orinda. The heroin find comes on top of police investigations into the gruesome drug world killing of a New Zealand man' in Australia.
The suspected murderer is another New Zealander with close connections with the Auckland drug scene. He has gone into hiding, although the police say they have no warrant for his arrest.
In Wellington, senior police officers confirmed the strong link between the Australian killing and the New Zealand drug scene. New Zealanders were known to be the main participants in drug running from Asia, the police said. The “Mr Big” of the South Seas trade, "Mr Asia,” was a New Zealander based in Singapore.
The homicide investigation started in New Zealand after the Australian police identified a handless skeleton found in a bush grave near Port Macquarie as a key figure in the drug-smuggling activities linking Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific islands with Asia.
Australian police believe the man had been tortured before his death to discover whether he had told of his connection with drug smuggling. His hands had been chopped off to hinder identification by fingerprints.
The dead man was known to the Australian police, having jumped bail on a drugsmuggling charge last year. Detectives in Queensland have a tape-recording in which the dead man told of fears for his life and gave inside information about the drug smugglers’ activities. The tape apparently says seven men are to be killed because they are no longer trusted.
Detective Chief Inspector B. F. Scott, deputy director (crime) at police headquarters in Wellington, said the New Zealand drug scene “did not have to escalate much further to get to that stage.”
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Press, 19 April 1979, Page 3
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327Auckland heroin find from Coast? Press, 19 April 1979, Page 3
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