$138m drug-ring frontman gets 15 years

A man who once toyed with devoting his life to God yesterday received a 15-year prison term for his "crucial" role in the largest methamphetamine-importing ring ever uncovered in New Zealand.

Kai Lok (Billy) Fung worked the New Zealand end of the $138 million China-based operation, smashed by police and customs officers in May.

Had the haul found its way onto the street, it would have been sufficient to provide a "point" (0.1g) quantity of the drug to every man, woman and child in the Auckland region.

Fung will serve a minimum seven-and-a-half years in prison.

His arrest came after Operation Major - a joint police-customs investigation - unearthed what Justice Lynton Stevens yesterday described as "a well-organised and structured criminal enterprise".

Fung - a theology graduate who previously spent time in the UK and Ireland with a view to becoming a Presbyterian minister - arrived in New Zealand on March 14, purporting to be a representative of the Jacob Plastics and Epoxy Company of Hong Kong.

Once here, he registered the company Isaac International Trade Company in New Zealand, and set up a National Bank account before leaving the country on March 23. He returned from Hong Kong on May 10. An Isaac International shipping container arrived at Tauranga three days later.

A search by customs unearthed 95kg of methamphetamine hidden in plastic blocks secreted inside tins of paint. The methamphetamine was estimated at 79 per cent pure, with a street value of $95 million.

The container was allowed to continue on to Fung, who was arrested while unloading it. A second shipment was found to contain tablets with ephedrine, a base ingredient in methamphetamine. Analysis revealed there was enough ephedrine to make 43kg of methamphetamine, worth up to $43 million.

Justice Stevens - sentencing in the High Court at Auckland - said the 95kg methamphetamine seizure was the largest-ever single shipment and was proof of drug running "on a grand scale".

Fung's lawyer, David Reece, told the court there was no evidence his client knew the full size, or nature, of the shipments, and despite fronting the operation in New Zealand was answerable to bosses in China.

Justice Stevens said the importing clearly fitted into the most serious category, and Fung had been "a crucial player".

Six other men face charges following Operation Major. They have yet to be dealt with by the courts.