Accused cocaine smuggler who fled NZ surfaces in trial

The alleged head of the NZ end of the drug syndicate owned the K'Rd Ball Room. Photo / Dean Purcell

An alleged cocaine smuggler who fled New Zealand nearly 10 years ago has resurfaced at the centre of an international drug syndicate after his fingerprints were found on a Harry Potter book.

Rokas Karpavicius was charged with conspiracy to import cocaine in 1999 but escaped overseas two years later while on bail. The Lithuanian was never caught.

Now Karpavicius has been named in a trial in the High Court at Auckland as the global kingpin of a drug and money-laundering syndicate.

His fingerprints were found on a Harry Potter book couriered from Spain to an Auckland address in April 2008 which had the Class A drug LSD hidden in the spine.

Drug squad detectives also tapped phone calls between Ronald Terrence Brown - allegedly the head of the New Zealand part of the syndicate - and Karpavicius in Europe.

Brown, 65, was not on trial this week but the court heard evidence that he owned Auckland nightclub the K'Rd Ball Room and paid cash for six expensive cars, including a late model Porsche 911.

Zvonko Dzomba, 49, Blair Aaron Bidois, 39, and Kellie Sheree Simanu, 33, are on trial in the High Court on charges of conspiracy to import a Class A drug.

Simanu and Anna Keziah Sauer, 31, also face money-laundering charges.

In his opening address, Crown prosecutor Robin McCoubrey said the drug importation inquiry began in Australia in January 2008 when Sydney police discovered that a shipment of granite sculptures sent from Lithuania concealed 28kg of amphetamine.

Further inquiries found a nearly identical shipment to Sydney in February 2007, and two to New Zealand that same year.

Mr McCoubrey said all the shipments were "strikingly similar".

All the containers of granite blocks were sent by the same person, with the same contact phone number and the same bank account.

By March 2008, Mr McCoubrey said, bugged phone calls revealed that the alleged conspirators knew they "had been found out" and they began devising a new smuggling method.

He said Bidois flew to meet Karpavicius in Spain before travelling to Columbia. Bidois was supposed to fly back to Spain, but was stranded in Columbia until Brown and Simanu wired money to him.

When he returned to New Zealand, Bidois met Brown at a Starbucks cafe in Karangahape Rd allegedly to explain the suggested new method of drug importation - to hide the drugs inside laminated wood.

Dzomba was also allegedly in direct contact with Karpavicius by phone talking about a "new idea".

Mr McCoubrey described Simanu as a "personal assistant" to Brown, responsible for sending money around the world, arranging travel and also in contact with Karpavicius.

Over a 12-month period, Sauer allegedly handled more than $400,000 of Brown's money.

Detective Sergeant John Sowter, officer in charge of Operation Keyboard, gave evidence about two Lithuanian associates of Karpavicius who came to New Zealand in 2007.

He said Martynas Cikas and his girlfriend Irina Mejeraite received more than $1.2 million from Brown to transfer to Karpavicius as payment for drugs.

Mr Sowter said detectives found 1000 Ecstasy, pills when they searched Brown's Westmere home.

They also found hundreds of thousands of dollars in an ASB safety deposit box and a false passport for Brown.

The trial, in front of Justice Mark Woolford, is expected to take three weeks.