Auckland man Paul McAuslin can now be named as one of the defendants in a record-breaking Auckland cocaine bust after he did not apply for ongoing suppression at his hearing on December 9, 2022 at the Auckland District Court. Photo / Supplied
Auckland man Paul McAuslin can now be named as one of the defendants in a record-breaking Auckland cocaine bust after he did not apply for ongoing suppression at his hearing on December 9, 2022 at the Auckland District Court. Photo / Supplied
A member of the Hells Angels in Auckland can now be named as one of the men accused of importing a record-breaking haul of cocaine from Ecuador.
Police allege the seven men were involved in an organised criminal group when they allegedly imported 190kg of cocaine into New Zealand.
The cocaine was hidden around the outside of pipes concealed inside a hulking boiler originally exported from Ecuador, police allege.
Paul McAuslin, a patched member of a Hells Angels Nomads chapter in Auckland, did not apply for ongoing interim name suppression when he appeared before Judge Grant Fraser in the Auckland District Court on Friday morning.
His lawyer Tiffany Buckley on Friday entered not guilty pleas on all charges and elected trial by jury.
Electoral records list his occupation as electrician and he was, until recently, a director and shareholder of a central Auckland boxing gym.
Paul McAuslin pictured in the UK in 2019. Photo / Supplied
There has been no suggestion the gym or any current or former directors or shareholders aside from McAuslin are involved in the alleged offending.
His mother, a schoolteacher, was in court to support McAuslin.
He was remanded in custody ahead of a hearing later this month where he will apply for electronically monitored bail.
Raids in mid-November following an investigation by the Police National Organised Crime Group, dubbed Operation Depot, found enormous quantities of the class A drug at a commercial property in New Lynn, West Auckland.
Police allege 190kg of cocaine was hidden inside the boiler, which had been partially deconstructed at the time of the raid.
If proven by police, this would make it New Zealand’s largest single seizure of cocaine leading to arrests, the Herald understands.
All of the men charged were remanded in custody and granted interim name suppression after their appearances in the Auckland District Court in November. Some have since been granted bail.
Bags of cocaine seized as part of the operation. Photo / NZ Police
Police say the cocaine seized so far is worth up to $38 million on the street.
“This was a very sophisticated method of concealment with excellent collaboration of border authorities, which was key to identifying and flagging this import as suspicious,” Detective Inspector Paul Newman said.
Those arrested are listed in court documents as living at a range of properties in central and south Auckland. The accused range in age from 21 to 37.
Newman said the seizure is a significant find for both police and Customs.
The Ecuadorian boiler in which the pipes allegedly containing cocaine were hidden. Photo / NZ Police
“Organised crime groups are investing increasingly large amounts of money and resources to conceal drugs as they come across the border,” he said.
Police are not ruling out further seizures or arrests.
Authorities were set to further deconstruct the boiler to establish the full extent and amount of cocaine concealed inside the machinery.
In March this year, Customs seized 700kg of cocaine in transit at Tauranga in a shipping container, but this did not lead to any arrests in New Zealand.
Thirty-five bricks of high-grade cocaine, weighing 1kg each, were smuggled into New Zealand in a 400kg diamante-encrusted horse sculpture. Photo / Jason Oxenham
In 2016, an American man and a Mexican man were arrested and charged after 35kg of the drug was found concealed inside a diamante horse head.
Ronald Wayne Cook Senior was jailed for 17 years and nine months, while Agustin Suarez-Juarez received 19 years and nine months.
