KEY POINTS:
A Chinese student who allegedly sat at the top of a multimillion-dollar Auckland meth-amphetamine ring kept $558,000 in cash in a safety deposit box in piles of hundred-dollar bills.
Court documents reveal Zhong Wei owned a late-model Chrysler Crossfire sports car in which bags of the drug and a further $38,000 cash were found during police raids last year.
A further $11,000 cash was seized from an apartment linked to 25-year-old Wei, nicknamed "Visa", and up to $16,500 in New Zealand, Australian and United States currency from his Titirangi address.
He also transferred $1.5 million back to China, in lots of up to $150,000 a time, in a 22-month period.
A booklet of photographs showing the drugs and cash was among evidence against Wei the Crown presented to a depositions hearing at the Auckland District Court yesterday. Wei conceded there was a case to answer and was remanded in custody to appear in the High Court at Auckland next year. He was not required to enter a plea but it is understood he denies the allegations.
Wei, who was wearing an All Blacks hooded sweatshirt, covered his face as photographs were taken of him.
He was one of five accused who appeared yesterday after being arrested last year in a major police investigation codenamed Operation Manu, which targeted an alleged Asian organised crime syndicate.
Eight more appeared during the first part of the hearing last week and all 13 accused, who face charges of conspiring to supply methamphetamine, have now conceded there is a case to answer.
The Herald was granted its application to view the evidence handed up to the court.
A Crown summary of the case said Wei and co-accused Chen Huang were the "custodians" of a "stockpile" of methamphetamine for the syndicate's leader back in China, controlling its sale to large-scale dealers in New Zealand.
Huang, a 24-year-old Taiwanese citizen, also appeared yesterday and was remanded in custody until next year.
Photographs from Huang's Ellerslie address show police found $92,660 cash in one paper bag, $20,000 in another bag and $5860 in a drawer. A wallet with Huang's student identification cards was found in the central console of a Lexus parked in the driveway. Receipts for cash payments of $74,100 for the Lexus were found in its boot, although it was registered to someone else.
The Crown summary said police intercepted 13,500 conversations during Operation Manu.
The summary detailed one conversation where Ri Tong Zhou, alleged to be a large-scale dealer supplied with methamphetamine by Wei and Huang, speaks of having "over thirty Ks" - which the Crown says refers to 30kg of methamphetamine, with a street value of $30 million.
The summary says the syndicate's China-based leader was called Xiao Pang.
