Intercepted communications between a man and an Australian hairdresser who allegedly orchestrated a $1 million drug deal of pseudoephedrine for the Comanchero MC president have been played in court.
A trial involving laundering and drug charges against Comanchero president Pasilika Naufahu, Connor Michael Tamati Clausen, accountant Wiwini Himi Hakaraia, a media personality who has name suppression, and a woman also with name suppression is in its third week at the High Court at Auckland.
The five were arrested following a series of raids across Auckland in April 2019 in which more than $3.7 million in assets were seized along with luxury cars, motorbikes, high-end luggage and jewellery.
On Thursday, Detective Sergeant Damian Espinosa provided more details of surveillance of Naufahu in regards to the charges relating to conspiring to supply pseudoephedrine.
Australian hairdresser He Sha was jailed earlier this year after he admitted crossing the Tasman to sell pseudoephedrine. The deal never went ahead.
Naufahu and Clausen are charged alongside Sha and the brother of a man who the Crown say is at the “heart of the case” with consipiring to supply pseudoephedrine.
Sha arrived in New Zealand from Sydney on September 15, 2018; three days later, the other associate arrived in the country.
That man cannot be identified as he is awaiting trial on a number of drugs charges.
Intercepted communications from September 20, 2018, from an audio device fitted in a vehicle were played to the jury on Thursday.
In the recording, the man can be heard getting frustrated with Sha talking about a “deal” that he can make nearly half a million dollars from.
“In New Zealand, time is the business, if you f… time, you never make money in this business,” the man says.
“This is the biggest gang in New Zealand, if they put word on the street about you, no-one comes near you.”
The man goes on to tell Sha about the “richest man in the country” who has a billion dollars.
After stopping at a cafe, the pair get back into the vehicle and the man can be heard telling Sha about how the area “is one of the most policed areas in the country … all gang squad”.
Later that afternoon, the man is heard telling Sha to “tell the guy that’s coming with the pseudo to drop it in the boot”.
”Go to the back of the car and put it in the boot,” the man says.
Later that day, the man yells at Sha that he is wasting time and is going to “blow the deal”.
”Your pseudo is worth nothing without their cash,” the man says.
Shortly after, Sha talks with someone on the phone and tells the man “your boss cancelled”.
“No more games … there is more than a million dollars coming. They don’t want to arrive if the pseudo is not here,” the man replies.
The day before, the man was observed leaving a Karaka address in a ute, Detective Sergeant Damian Espinosa said.
Officers then observed the ute park up in Howick next to a white Range Rover. Shortly after the man and Naufahu were seen by police sitting in the Howick Village Cafe.
The pair parted ways before the man made various stops and took photos of his car before he was observed meeting up with Sha and the pair also made multiple stops around the city.
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Source: Stuff