A jury is set to spend most of a month learning the ins and outs of what police say was a methamphetamine ring involving Hells Angels members stationed across the North Island.
Late-night car trips, stacks of cash, drugs hidden in a power drill and a meth cook throwing ingredients into the rain as police closed in all featured in Crown prosecutor Deborah Davies’ opening address on Thursday.
Scott James Allan, Andrew John Sisson, Cain Tupurupuru Liddington and Brendon Ross Richardson are on trial in the Palmerston North District Court, accused of various roles in a meth ring that allegedly ran in the first half of 2020.
Davies said the police investigation, dubbed Operation Buckle, actually focused on Daron Ian Charles Gilmore, a Palmerston North-based Hells Angel who had already pleaded guilty.
READ MORE:
* Man who smuggled meth into New Zealand jailed for 16 years
* Makeshift flamethrower used to get two pouches of tobacco
* Speedway driver goes from using meth money to fuel racing to helping at-risk youth
Sisson, an Auckland-based Hells Angels president with the nickname Sess, supplied Gilmore, Davies said.
Gilmore, with Richardson as his driver, sourced meth from Sisson, who was allegedly called Big Fish in text messages.
Gilmore then distributed meth to a network of dealers, gathered the cash and took money back to Sisson, thereby keeping the ring going.
That network of dealers included Richardson and Liddington, Davies said.
DENISE PIPER/STUFF
Northland District Health Board meth clinician Cordelia Waetford explains how methamphetamine is addictive and how treatment helps. (Video first published in January 2020).
The trips were not always smooth though, with police pulling over Richardson and Gilmore in Auckland during one when Richardson failed to indicate before two turns.
They spotted a realistic-looking fake gun in the door, leading them to search the car and find knives, cannabis and $130,000 cash.
Richardson told the officers the money was for baleage.
The officers let them go with the cash since Gilmore was under surveillance, following them to Sisson’s house in Auckland.
While they left the cash behind, they did not get any drugs – something Davies said was done to ensure Sisson was not outed as the supplier.
Gilmore spent a lot of time texting and calling various people, including a former partner who he repeatedly hassled about a ute and a power drill with things stored in them.
Davies said that something was meth.
The first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 put a spanner in Gilmore’s plans, with travel made difficult by the fact everyone was supposed to be staying home.
That was where Allan came in.
He was allegedly a meth cook Gilmore got to produce the drug in Manawatū, eliminating the need for risky cross-country trips, Davies said.
It was not a simple relationship, with drugs not being ready by proposed dates leading Richardson to text an associate “once a Mother, always a Mother” – allegedly a reference to Allan being a member of the Mothers Motorcycle Club before the Hells Angels.
Allan was seen throwing chemicals out of a shipping container into the rain when police went to arrest him in June 2020.
Officers found various chemicals and equipment associated with meth cooking, as well as a product Allan claimed was caustic soda but scientists found was a meth precursor, Davies said.
Sisson’s lawyer Mark Ryan said Sisson was never part of any conspiracy to supply meth and never supplied it to Gilmore or Richardson.
He only met the duo on one of their trips to allegedly get meth, but they only discussed a deal for a motorcycle and sidecar.
Richardson’s lawyer Lucy Postlewaight gave a similar version of events, saying Richardson thought he was driving Gilmore, who did not have a licence, to and around Auckland for legitimate purposes.
Any meth he had was small volumes for personal use, she said.
“He was not part of this gravy train.”
Allan’s lawyer John Anderson said his client simply did not do what the Crown claimed.
Liddington, who is representing himself, did not make an opening statement.
The trial before Judge Bruce Northwood is expected to take four weeks.
