An Auckland businessman organised a record heroin shipment while deputy chief of an Asian drug syndicate, United States detectives claim.
The shipment into California organised by Hing Hung Wong totalled 486kg of heroin worth hundreds of millions of dollars, they say.
Further details of the allegations against Wong emerged in the Auckland District Court yesterday as the US launched its extradition case - but defence lawyers argued that some of the evidence was faulty.
A secret witness tagged John Doe said in a statement that he met a man called Ah Dee in the 1980s while the pair worked for an organisation run by a Thailand-based boss called Dai Wah Szeto, or Mad Six. The US contends that Ah Dee was an alias used by Wong.
Doe said the group shipped heroin "throughout the world," including to the US and Europe, and moved tens of millions of dollars through accounts in Hong Kong.
Ah Dee worked his way up the organisation until he became Mad Six's "right-hand man, or second in command." One of his many roles was to oversee heroin shipments to the US.
Doe said that in 1991 Ah Dee asked him to go to California to help with an "enormous" shipment that was due in San Francisco. The operation was shelved when the heroin was intercepted by US authorities.
According to assistant US attorney Stuart Altman, customs agents swooped on the shipment on May 20, 1991, while it was being unloaded at a dock. They found 486kg of heroin in a bust known as the Heyward Seizure.
FBI special agent Redentor Nucum said in a statement that the heroin was removed, the boxes sealed and the shipment sent to its destination at a warehouse. Four people who tried to pick it up were later arrested.
Another witness, Matthew Lo, said he worked in the US heroin trade with a man who claimed to be a childhood friend of Ah Dee. Lo heard that Ah Dee was an important dealer who was able to send large quantities to the US whenever it was needed.
Lo said some heroin was sold to associates of a triad called the Flying Dragon, and that one dealer in New York obtained all his heroin from Ah Dee during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Lo said that in 1994 he heard that Ah Dee told the dealer to go to New York to receive up to 200 units of heroin from Asia. Units were being sold for about $60,000 each at that time.
Other evidence presented yesterday included transcripts of tapped phone calls said to involve Wong and his "childhood friend" talking in code about drug deals.
But Wong's defence team called to the stand US lawyer Margaret Alverson, who said she had come across one of the tapes during an earlier trial in the US.
Ms Alverson said a transcript of the tape that she saw during the earlier trial was different from the new one, which showed there had been problems in translating the Cantonese conversation.
The Auckland police Asian Crime Squad arrested Wong in January. He has since been bailed on some of the strictest terms seen in New Zealand, and is under 24-hour guard in his secret city apartment.
The hearing is expected to last most of this week.
Auckland man 'Mr Big in Asia drug ring'
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