The infamous "death head" insignia of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. Photo / NZME
The infamous "death head" insignia of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. Photo / NZME
An investigation by the United States DEA - the agency which brought down Pablo Escobar and 'El Chapo' - led to the arrest of two New Zealanders in Romania, as well as the president of the Hells Angels chapter in Bucharest. The Herald can now reveal a 62-year-old man has also been charged with cocaine importation, and the DEA wants him extradited to the US to stand trial.
A 62-year-old man has been arrested in Auckland for allegedly conspiring to import cocaine into New Zealand, as a result of a DEA investigation into the Hells Angels motorcycle gang in the United States and Europe.
The Drug Enforcement Administration has sought to extradite the man - who is nota member of the Hells Angels - to face drug trafficking charges in the United States, along with two other New Zealanders who were arrested in Romania last week.
Marc Patrick Johnson and Michael Murray Matthews, both New Zealand citizens, were arrested in Romania last week along with the president of the Bucharest chapter of the Hells Angels.
The pair were caught in a sting operation in dramatic footage captured on a drone-mounted thermal image camera.
The Romanian police allege Johnson and Matthews were arrested "immediately after negotiating the payment of a quantity of cocaine ... to be transmitted to New Zealand".
Two luxury cars and 12 motorcycles were seized in the raids, along with US$200,000 cash, a "lethal weapon", and 100g of cocaine.
The raids came after the DEA requested help from the Romanian authorities to investigate an organised criminal group "responsible for obtaining significant amounts of cocaine and methamphetamine in the United States and other states and the distribution of these drugs within the European Union and New Zealand".
The Bucharest Court of Appeal has ruled that Murray and Johnson are to be remanded in custody for 30 days and will decide in December whether the pair will be extradited to the United States to face charges.
After inquiries by the Herald, the New Zealand police confirmed an arrest had been made in New Zealand to coincide with the raids in Europe.
Detective Inspector Paul Newman said investigators from the National Organised Crime Group and New Zealand Customs "assisted in the apprehension" of a 62-year old Auckland man who had allegedly conspired to import cocaine.
"The arrests come as a result of excellent international teamwork and conclude an operation in which a criminal syndicate was attempting to import large volumes of cocaine into our country," Newman said.
"We are seeing that New Zealand criminal syndicates are well connected across the globe. This operation demonstrates that law enforcement agencies are just as nimble and are able to work collaboratively to deal with transnational crime.
"These law enforcement partnerships are essential in reducing the harm caused by transnational crime groups and we will continue leverage off these partnerships to make New Zealand a difficult place for criminals to do their business here."
Newman confirmed the arrest of the 62-year-old was connected to the wider operation which saw the two New Zealand citizens arrested in Romania and charged with serious drug dealing.
He will appear in the Auckland District Court next Friday on the extradition warrant.
Court documents and parole board decisions obtained by the Herald show Michael Matthews is a patched member of the Hells Angels in Auckland, while Johnson has a long and chequered past in New Zealand's drug trade.
A dozen expensive motorcycles were seized from the Hells Angels in Romania following a DEA tipoff. Photo / Supplied
With a university degree in chemistry and years of experience working in laboratories in the United Kingdom, Johnson returned to New Zealand and started an event lighting business in the nightclub scene.
His drug addiction intertwined with his business interests, leading to bankruptcy. So Johnson put his chemistry skills to work in the difficult art of manufacturing methamphetamine, a relatively new and extremely popular drug.
Johnson was among the first meth "cooks" to hone his skills in the lucrative new trade, as underworld figures and gang members soon became rich off the profits.
He was convicted in two separate trials in 2001 of attempting to manufacture and conspiring to manufacture meth, which was then only a Class B drug. He was sentenced to three and three and a half in prison.
"What saddens me is that you are a person of intellect and ability, and you have displayed a commitment in obtaining your qualifications," the sentencing judge told Johnson.
"It is a matter for you, but let me say this to you, there is no future in being involved in the manufacture of drugs. All that will happen to you is that you will spend a lifetime in prison and you will know that all those individuals who consistently become involved in the narcotic scene, whether by way of manufacture, supply or importation, eventually end up by serving very, very lengthy terms of imprisonment. It would be sad to see a person of your talents and ability end up like that."
Hundreds of thousands of dollars were seized by Romanian police in the alleged drugs bust involving two New Zealanders. Photo / Supplied
The negative social effects of methamphetamine were belatedly recognised by Parliament in 2003 when the stimulant was reclassified to a Class A drug, carrying a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
By this stage, methamphetamine was now entrenched as the drug of choice in New Zealand. And it seems Johnson was unable to shake his own addiction issues.
Only a few years passed before he was back before the courts, jailed in 2007 for one year and nine months for possession of equipment to manufacture methamphetamine.
The following year, the now 42-year-old Johnson was convicted of conspiracy to manufacture and supply the Class A drug in a Nelson drug ring.
"You describe yourself as living 'week by week' and being 'lost in a maze of meth', and on a 'downhill run' at the time of your offending," Justice Lynton Stevens told Johnson in 2008.
"You state that you are 'appalled with the whole thing'. And so you should be, because this is a nefarious drug, the effects of which are pernicious, not just for you, but for the whole of society."
Gangs1
Justice Stevens said he would give Johnson "one last chance" on account of his early guilty pleas, and attempts to turn his life around, and so gave a generous sentence of two years, 10 months.
Four years later, Johnson was arrested for running a laboratory making a different sort of drug altogether, gamma-butyrolactone or GBL.
Better known as fantasy, the Class-B drug is popular in the United Kingdom nightclub scene where GBL has a more sinister nickname - "coma in a bottle" - as a so-called "date rape" drug.
Because of its liquid form, GBL can easily be slipped into someone's drink to make them an easier, stupefied target for sexual assault.
The now 47-year-old Johnson was convicted of making GBL and sent to prison yet again, this time for four years and three months.
He was released by the Parole Board in 2015 and the three-person panel urged Johnson to "use the intelligence he undoubtedly has".
With dual British citizenship, Johnson told the Parole Board he wanted to complete a fluid engineering course in the United Kingdom in order to become a "mud doctor" in the drilling industry.
Johnson was "determined to not return to prison", noted the Parole Board.
Five years later, he now faces the prospect of lengthy prison sentences in either Romania or the United States, if convicted of the cocaine trafficking charges laid in the DEA sting on the Hells Angels.
The relationship between New Zealand police and the DEA has strengthened in recent years, with officials from the US agency posted in branch offices in Wellington and Auckland.
The DEA is perhaps best known in this part of the world through the Netflix hit Narcos, which delved into the life and crimes of Colombian kingpin Pablo Escobar, and more recently the prosecution of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
Likely to receive a life sentence on drug trafficking convictions, "El Chapo" was the leader of the Mexican cartel Sinaloa as the organised crime group rose to power globally.
Attracted to the relatively small market of New Zealand because of the high prices for drugs, the Mexican cartels are believed to be smuggling methamphetamine and cocaine into the country.
The infamous "death head" insignia of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. Photo / NZME
The Auckland chapter of the Hells Angels, established in 1961, was the first to be officially sanctioned outside of the United States. Since then, the Hells Angels have become a truly international gang with chapters around the globe.
Members of the gang in New Zealand were believed to be the first to manufacture methamphetamine, according to police intelligence, having been taught by their United States brethren.
Some were found guilty of meth manufacture in the late 1990s and early 2000s, although very few members of the senior hierarchy have been convicted in the decades since.
The Angels have kept a low profile in recent years but have expanded across New Zealand, as international gangs such as the Comancheros and the Mongols established a presence through members being deported as "501s" from Australia.
In particular, the arrival of the Mongols - traditionally bitter enemies in the United States - has ruffled feathers in the criminal underworld. Members of the "Quake City" chapter of the Hells Angels in Christchurch "patched over" to the Mongols last year and the defection triggered tit-for-tat arsons at properties linked to the gangs.
The number of gang members in New Zealand grew by 50 per cent between 2016 and 2019 to more than 7000 individuals.
