New Zealand’s largest drug bust: Comanchero Muli Paunga pleads guilty

A Comancheros member is now facing up to life imprisonment after pleading guilty to having aided the importation of a massive load of methamphetamine disguised as tea bags.

The haul, initially described as 613kg and worth roughly $245 million, was intercepted at Auckland Airport in 2022 as part of a covert investigation dubbed Operation Weirton.

Papatoetoe resident Muli Paunga, 35, appeared in the dock in the High Court at Auckland yesterday wearing the gang’s black and gold colours as he admitted two charges of possessing meth for supply. He is likely to receive a substantial prison term as a result, all parties agreed.

Justice Layne Harvey denied Paunga’s request to remain on bail while awaiting his sentencing hearing, set for November.

Operation Weirton was launched by the Police National Organised Crime Group in August 2020 focusing on another defendant. The 613kg haul, described in court documents as a consignment imported for on-supply by the Comancheros Motorcycle Club, was intercepted by Customs 18 months later after arriving on a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Paunga, described in the agreed summary of facts as a patched member of the gang, was arrested a week later after authorities caught him in possession of the fake powder substance that had been secretly swapped out by authorities.

A record haul of methamphetamine was intercepted at Auckland Airport as part of Operation Weirton. Photo / NZ Police

Audio and tracking devices had been concealed within the haul.

Court documents state the drugs were retrieved from a shipping company by others on March 1, 2022, and driven in a hired van to Weymouth. Five of the 27 boxes were then loaded into a Nissan Navara registered to Paunga’s father and driven to Paunga’s address, where they were left inside the fenceline of the property.

Police started making arrests a short time later.

“Mr Paunga ran from his address,” court documents state. “He was apprehended several streets away.

“It is accepted that the defendants knew the consignment was very large — requiring a truck and at least two defendants to move it — but may not have known the precise amount of methamphetamine involved (613 kilograms).”

The shipment was described by police as consisting of 27 boxes on a pallet wrapped in black shrink wrap. Each box contained 22 to 23 square-shaped items wrapped in tin foil. Underneath the layer of tinfoil was a further layer of packaging for green tea. Inside each set of packaging was a vacuum-sealed plastic package containing approximately 1kg of methamphetamine.

The 613kg of methamphetamine was later tested and determined to have a purity of 80%, with revised street value of between $98m and $116m.

Police also located just under 450g of low-purity methamphetamine in Paunga’s home unrelated to the consignment. The drugs were found in three locations, in a New World shopping bag, in a Nike shoe box and in a Pyrex container. Police also located Comancheros hoodies and patches.

Other co-defendants have pleaded not guilty and await trial next year.

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.