Ferrari and Lamborghini among $7m of assets seized from alleged importer of New Zealand's biggest meth bust. Video / New Zealand Police
Daniel Hannett had a clean criminal record and had the appearance of being a legitimate business owner.
The patched Mongrel Mob member purchased several valuable homes and a fleet of expensive cars.
He now faces a long prison sentence after admitting his role in one of New Zealand’s biggest drug busts.
A member of the Mongrel Mob built an empire worth millions of dollars before getting caught helping an organised crime group smuggle one of the largest-ever shipments of methamphetamine into New Zealand.
The seizure of 613kg - worth an estimated $100m at wholesale prices- was the biggest at the time it was intercepted at Auckland Airport in February 2022 as part of a covert investigation dubbed Operation Weirton.
The Crown says the haul was destined for the Comancheros outlaw motorcycle gang for distribution. But the main target of Operation Weirton was Daniel Aperahama Hannett.
The 39-year-old had already been under surveillance by the police National Organised Crime Group for about 18 months.
Hannett was the director and shareholder of several companies, had a clean criminal record and the appearance of being a legitimate businessman with connections to the freight-forwarding industry.
At the time of the surveillance, Hannett owned several valuable properties, a collection of 22 performance and luxury vehicles - including a Ferrari and a Lamborghini - and other assets estimated to be worth $7 million.
He also had gang connections as a member of the Mongrel Mob.
Detectives suspected the true source of Hannett’s wealth was his knowledge of the freight industry to smuggle drugs into New Zealand.
But despite running for 18 months, Operation Weirton had not found evidence of Hannett being directly involved in importing drugs.
The investigation had more success, however, focusing on Hannett’s money laundering.
One of the transactions was the sale and purchase of a property he owned at a grossly inflated price to conceal the source of $5 million in cash.
But in January 2022, the course of Operation Weirton took a dramatic turn.
Hannett was seen meeting with a senior member of the Comancheros, an outlaw motorcycle gang with strong links to organised crime groups overseas.
The ongoing surveillance on Hannett led to police discovering that a large shipment of methamphetamine was due to land in New Zealand soon.
The consignment arrived on a Malaysian Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur in late February 2022, where it was inspected by Customs officials at Auckland International Airport.
There were 27 boxes on the pallet, with each box holding 22 or 23 square packages wrapped in tinfoil. Once unwrapped, the contents appeared to be Chinese green tea.
But on further inspection, each parcel was a vacuum-sealed package of methamphetamine weighing 1kg.
The total weight of the drugs was 613kg and with a price range of around $160,000 per kilogram, the import was estimated to be worth $100m.
Operation Weirton found 613kg of methamphetamine concealed as packets of green tea on a flight from Malaysia in February 2022. It was the biggest drug bust in New Zealand history at the time. Photo / NZ Police
Customs staff replaced the drugs with a substitute placebo, which looks and feels like methamphetamine, before being repackaged with audio and tracking devices inside.
The shipment was released by Customs and picked up from the warehouse on March 1, 2022 by two men affiliated to the Comancheros gang, authorities allege.
The hired van was driven to an industrial address in Weymouth, where five of the 27 boxes were loaded into a Nissan Navara registered to the father of a patched Comanchero.
The vehicle was then driven to the Comanchero’s home, where they were left inside the fenceline of the property, according to police.
At this point, Operation Weirton started arresting the surveillance targets, including Daniel Hannett.
Today in the High Court at Auckland, Hannett pleaded guilty to importing a Class-A drug, two counts of money laundering, a representative charge of unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition and possession of nearly 22g of MDMA.
He now faces a sentence of up to life imprisonment for the methamphetamine importation charge. He did not seek continued bail and was taken into custody.
A sentencing date has not yet been set for Hannett, but a disputed facts hearing has been tentatively set for July.
Daniel Hannett, inset, and his late-model Ferrari which was part of $7m worth of assets seized by police following Operation Weirton. Hannett was also charged with importing 613kg of methamphetamine and money laundering. Photo / Supplied
Disputed facts
Defence lawyer Ron Mansfield KC told Justice Mathew Downs today that his client acknowledges having worked with an organised crime group but is not willing to identify the group. The Crown alleges it is the Comancheros.
Hannett does not dispute the amount of drugs that were imported but he does take issue with his alleged leadership role, Mansfield added, describing his client as someone who was simply useful to the group because of his experience importing goods.
Lawyers left open the possibility that they may be able to reach an agreement on the Crown summary of facts without the need for a disputed hearing.
Hannett also faces the forfeiture of around $7m of assets restrained under the Criminal Proceeds Recovery Act.
Shortly after his arrest in March 2022, police raided the multimillion-dollar home recently purchased by Hannett and towed away his late-model Ferrari and Lamborghini vehicles, two Mercedes-Benz and a Nissan Skyline worth around $300,000.
Bank funds of around $1 million were also restrained, as were the four properties owned by the target of Operation Weirton, in Auckland and a coastal settlement in the Bay of Plenty.
“This is a significant seizure of millions of dollars’ worth of property, allegedly gained from the proceeds of crime,” Detective Inspector Lloyd Schmid said at the time.
“These criminal syndicates are motivated by financial greed and prey on those who are most vulnerable, with no regard for the destruction and social harm that methamphetamine causes in our communities.”
A concerning wider trend
The 613kg bust in Operation Weirton broke the record as the largest shipment ever seized in New Zealand, but illustrated a concerning wider trend.
For many years, the largest shipment of meth found in New Zealand was 95kg in 2006.
Operation Major dwarfed every other seizure for the next decade and was seen as an outlier until 501kg was found near Ninety Mile Beach in 2016.
Since then, seizures of more than 500kg such as Operation Weirton have become almost routine. The current record of 713kg was found inside maple syrup bottles shipped from Canada in early 2023.
But despite more drugs being seized than ever before, the consumption of methamphetamine more than doubled in 2024 to the highest levels recorded in national wastewater testing.
The “dire” numbers were highlighted in a report by an independent expert group published last week, that warned New Zealand was “losing the fight” against organised crime.
The advisory group to Cabinet Minister Casey Costello is likely to recommend “bold steps” to strengthen anti-money laundering measures and achieve better information-sharing between government departments.
Jared Savage covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006 and has won a dozen journalism awards in that time, including twice being named Reporter of the Year. He is also the author of Gangland and Gangster’s Paradise.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
