Five charged with cooking P

ESR staff at an alleged methamphetamine lab at a property on Dolphin Place in Tutukaka this week. Photo / John Stone

Five people charged with manufacturing methamphetamine at a Northland holiday home can be named.

They were called separately when they appeared in the Whangarei District Court yesterday.

Four of the five were wearing white overalls they were dressed in after going through a decontamination shower when they were arrested.

Police were called to the holiday home in Dolphin Place, on the Tutukaka coast, about 2pm on Sunday after reports of suspicious behaviour.

It was revealed in court yesterday that the holiday home was hired out for $3000 for an eight-day period. A person who visited the property while the five people were there became suspicious when they noted that windows, particularly those facing the ocean, had been covered.

When police went to the house they allegedly found a large drug lab for manufacturing methamphetamine.

Charla May McIntyre, 18, of Kerikeri, Kimberley Rose Gibbons-Hurinui, 30, of Auckland, Julian Donald Robert, 43, of Mangawhai, Jeffery James Hall, 33, from Northcote, and Tama Hatepe Watene-Toi were jointly charged with manufacturing methamphetamine on July 7. Manufacturing the Class A drug carries a penalty of life imprisonment.

They all face two charges of unlawful possession of firearms which relate to a sawn-off .22 rifle and an AK-47 assault rifle.

They also face one charge of possession of precursor equipment including glass beakers, baking dishes, reaction vessels, heating pads, condensers, flasks and clamps and stands.

None of the five applied for bail and Judge John McDonald remanded them in jail until August 1 to allow for legal advice and a plea to be taken.

A neighbour of the Dolphin Place property told the Northern Advocate he had seen emergency services there and five people were taken through a decontamination shower before police put them in "those nice white jumpsuits and handcuffed them".