“Currently in New Zealand the best way to make money is to sell Methamphetamine.” Fighting the Demon explores the business of meth.
Convicted drug supplier and former outlaw bikie Darren Creelman has been caught in a compromising position – again.
As police charged into the Herne Bay home where he was staying in February 2021, an officer found the fugitive in a “frenzied state”, hunched over a toilet with bath taps running and a chemical odour filling the small room as he repeatedly tried to flush away the remnants of what prosecutors would later describe as a significant methamphetamine stash. He had thrown a gun out of the bathroom window and appeared to have ripped the toilet seat off its hinges.
Some methamphetamine had spilt onto the bathroom floor. The house, in an affluent inner-Auckland suburb, also contained about $120,000 in cash, five mobile phones and scales.
The raid went somewhat under the radar at the time, not eliciting attention amid numerous record-breaking meth importations in recent years. But a year later, Creelman would become the subject of unwanted headlines after a raid at a live-in drug rehab facility – where he had been bailed to await trial on the previous raid – resulted in his arrest on yet more drug supply and gun charges.
Details of both incidents were outlined in Auckland District Court last week as Creelman was sentenced to prison – an outcome that his lawyer conceded was inevitable given the way circumstances played out.
“You have a significant history,” Judge David Sharp said, explaining that he needed to consider principles of denunciation in determining the end sentence. “In general, people have to realise that, if they’re involved in serious drugs and firearms to the extent you have, there will be serious penalties.”
Creelman was on parole for an even earlier charge of conspiracy to supply methamphetamine when police caught up with him at the Herne Bay home in 2021.
He would later admit that he was flushing methamphetamine down the toilet as police arrived, but exactly how much remains in dispute. Police recovered 57.7 grams of the drug, with a street value of roughly $9000 to $14,000, by distilling the toilet water still in the bowl when Creelman was apprehended.
Darren Creelman appears for sentencing in Auckland District Court. Photo / Dean Purcell
In a disputed facts hearing earlier this year, Crown prosecutor Daniel Becker argued that the judge could safely infer from the scene in the bathroom that Creelman “at the very least” had between 500g and one kilogram of methamphetamine before the frantic efforts to dispose of it. He noted that a bucket was also found in the bathroom, capable of carrying 10-15 litres, and that a witness testified she heard a co-defendant yell “something to Darren about flushing the bucket or something”.
While there is no way of knowing how much methamphetamine was in the bucket, even if it was just 10% full that would equate to more than 500g, the prosecutor argued.
But defence lawyer Shannon Withers insisted that could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. He suggested the bucket might not have held methamphetamine at all but could have been used to fill the toilet’s cistern with water so it would flush faster.
In a judgment issued in March, Judge Sharp said he’d consider for the purpose of sentencing that “not less than 250g” had been dumped – an amount that he said could be considered beyond a reasonable doubt even though “it is indeed likely that a greater amount ... was disposed”. That amount would have an estimated street value of $40,000 to $63,000, court documents state.
As he awaited trial on the toilet incident, Creelman was allowed to live at Nga Kete Wananga Solutions, a rural Dairy Flat drug rehab facility considered a place of last resort for some of Auckland’s toughest-to-reach addicts. He seemed to excel at the working farm during his 15 months there, founder Matilda Kahotea would later tell jurors. After addressing his sobriety, he became a mentor for newcomers and took on a permanent live-in maintenance role, she said.
Police staff at the entrance of the Nga Kete rehab facility in Dairy Flat, north of Auckland, after a raid that resulted in the arrest of Darren Creelman. Photo / Dean Purcell
But police were far from convinced by his reform efforts. On October 6, 2022, they conducted an early-morning raid on the facility. Investigators found a semi-automatic pistol, ammunition, about 400g of meth and just under 1kg of meth ingredient pseudoephedrine hidden in a plastic bucket on a woodpile in a muddy paddock.
Less than a week later, on October 12, Creelman’s trial for the toilet case began. He pleaded guilty at the outset to three counts of possession of methamphetamine for supply, as well as illegal possession of a firearm, ammunition and two fake driver’s licences. Jurors acquitted him of other charges to which he had pleaded not guilty.
Despite the guilty pleas, it would be another year and a half before his sentencing as he awaited a decision about the quantity of flushed drugs and the outcome of the Nga Kete trial last December.
Prosecutors acknowledged at the Nga Kete trial that the case against Creelman was circumstantial, with the drugs having been found in a common area of the facility where numerous people with substantial drug records lived. But he would have been the “unluckiest gentleman in the world” if it was a set-up and all the incriminating details against him were coincidence, Becker argued.
Police itemised the drugs, cash and firearms collected during a raid at the Nga Kete rehab facility resulting in the arrest of Darren Creelman. Photo / Supplied
During last week’s hearing, however, Judge Sharp acknowledged the circumstantial nature of the case and what defence lawyer Withers described as a “rogues gallery” of other potential suspects who were living at the facility.
“I’m not convinced by the material that he was the person who was primarily responsible,” the judge said, adding later: “There are doubts as to precisely what your role is.”
Although Creelman admitted guilt in the Herne Bay case, his lawyer sought to downplay his role in that offending. While he was caught in the act of disposing of the drugs, that did not mean he was the primary owner of them, the defence said.
His troubled background – exposed to drug dealing at an early age through his father – meant he chose not to point the finger at anyone else even when it resulted in a significant threat to his freedom, Withers indicated.
Police officers searching a paddock behind the Nga Heke Wananga drug rehabilitation centre in Dairy Flat. Photo / George Block
He began using drugs at 14, followed by involvement with the Head Hunters, according to reports submitted to the court. He was later thrown out of the gang. Head Hunters tattoos on his hands have been covered with a large X.
Despite his Nga Kete setback, Creelman’s latest stint in rehab had been “extremely transformative”, Withers told the judge.
“This is an honest attempt at rehabilitation and it has netted positive gains for him in terms of recovery.”
The judge acknowledged the effort, noting Creelman’s admission that, until recently, he always had “one foot in and one foot out” of the criminal world.
Darren Creelman has been sentenced to nine years in jail. Photo / Dean Purcell
“You regard this as a turning point,” the judge said.
But he also noted that Creelman was assessed as being at a high risk of reoffending and a medium risk of harming others.
The judge ordered a sentence of nine years’ imprisonment, taking into account reductions for his troubled background, rehabilitation efforts and guilty pleas, as well as uplifts for his “considerable” criminal history, the use of weapons and his reoffending while on bail. He declined the Crown’s request that Creelman be ordered to serve at least 40% of the sentence before he could apply for parole.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
