Bailed P cook charged with trying to make meth while awaiting sentence

Christian Clifton. Photo / Supplied

A prolific P cook has been charged with trying to make methamphetamine while free on bail soon after admitting serious drugs charges.

Christian Clifton, 48, was arrested and charged last week with possession of precursor materials and equipment and attempting to manufacture methamphetamine.

The new charges were laid just weeks after Judge Roy Wade granted Clifton bail after he pleaded guilty to a string of drugs charges on the eve of his trial.

The 10 manufacturing charges he admitted to each carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Clifton was the major target in Operation Royale, a covert investigation by Auckland drug squad detectives between July and August 2009.

Bugged text messages and cellphone calls show Clifton was manufacturing and supplying methamphetamine to a number of people, including Taranaki Fuimaono, a patched King Cobra. Fuimaono, 31, has also pleaded guilty to drugs charges and was protecting Clifton from other criminals during the "cooking" process.

Despite being a member of the KC gang, Fuimaono switched allegiance to the Head Hunters during Operation Royale. His younger brother Tuale Joe Fuimaono is also a patched Head Hunter and is serving a six-year sentence for manslaughter.

Clifton was cooking methamphetamine in a clan lab in West Auckland but police say the drug ring was being financed by a man in Tauranga, who is yet to stand trial.

While he has pleaded to 10 manufacturing charges, Clifton is disputing the amount of the class-A drug he made. He is due to be sentenced next month.

Clifton has previously served a six-year, 10-month prison sentence for importing and manufacturing methamphetamine in 2000. It was then a class-B drug.