'Beast' facing jail after jury hands guilty verdict to P boss

Albert Wayne Hunter ran a drug syndicate from the heart of the Mt Albert shopping centre. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Cooking methamphetamine for Albert Wayne Hunter was called "working for the Beast".

The 63-year-old now faces prison for running a methamphetamine syndicate from a concrete "bunker" in an Auckland shopping village.

Hunter was this week found guilty by a jury in the Auckland District Court of multiple counts of conspiracy to supply and manufacture the Class A drug.

Police had tapped his cellphone and put surveillance cameras around the headquarters in Mt Albert.

The headquarters - protected by a locked grill door and security cameras - is underneath the carpark for the Video Ezy store on New North Rd. Methamphetamine was supplied to dealers from the address, which can be accessed from a side street. Operation Helar allowed police to unravel the drug network.

One of Hunter's foot-soldiers was Kamal Jonathan Butt, 36, who was found guilty of manufacturing methamphetamine.

During the course of Operation Helar, Muckunda Horsfall was already in prison after being convicted of cooking P. On his release from prison, Horsfall quickly reunited with Hunter to replace Butt as the favourite P cook. He has since pleaded guilty to the manufacture and supply of methamphetamine with Hunter.

Two others were also caught in the police sting, including Auckland woman Hong Scott who was found guilty of possession for supply. King Cobra member Paul Mark Golding pleaded guilty to supplying pseudoephedrine, a Class C drug, knowing it would be used to make methamphetamine. All six will be sentenced on August 31.

An underworld source told the Weekend Herald that cooking methamphetamine for Hunter was known as "working for the Beast".

Hunter is considered to be a criminal godfather with strong connections to Asian organised crime syndicates; a key link in smuggling pseudoephedrine from China to manufacture P.

One of the people Hunter was found guilty of conspiring with was Guozhi Li - a key player in the drug ring run from the VIP lounges of SkyCity in 2006.

Li is currently serving 11 years and three months in prison, but worked with Hunter while on bail before his sentencing.

He became a high priority target when detectives believed he was pooling resources with other drug kingpins to smuggle pseudoephedrine into New Zealand.

Hunter was seen with Max John Beckham, 63, who was also under police surveillance between October and December 2008 in a separate investigation. A wealthy Northland businessman, Beckham was found guilty in April of conspiracy to manufacture and supply methamphetamine, supply of cocaine, cannabis oil and Ecstasy and money laundering.

Just one charge was the supply of 2kg of P - worth $2 million.