KEY POINTS:
Tauranga police are now treating a missing person inquiry as a probable murder.
Grant Trevor Adams -- alleged to have been involved in the manufacture, distribution and use of controlled drugs, including methamphetamine -- has not been seen since late 2005.
Well known among the criminal fraternity by the nickname "Granite," 29-year-old Mr Adams had links with the Headhunter gang in West Auckland, the Filthy Few in Tauranga, Waihi and the Waikato, and possibly the Mongrel Mob.
"We believe he is dead," head of Tauranga CIB, Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Turner, said this afternoon.
Information received from a number of criminal sources during the course of the police investigation indicated that Mr Adams had been the victim of foul play.
Police had heard rumours that he had been involved in a "rip off" over a methamphetamine manufacturing operation, said Mr Turner.
"Upon the discovery of his body it will become a full-blown homicide inquiry."
The last confirmed sighting of the former Waitakere man -- also known as Grant Corbett and Grant Hayes -- was at a Hayes Avenue address in the Tauranga suburb of Greerton on November 2, 2005.
Mr Adams was involved in a dispute with his flatmates but had left the address that night before police arrived.
"It would be fair to say there was what appeared to be apparatus used for the manufacture of P at the address where he had been living," Mr Turner said.
However, there was nothing so far to link the flatmates with his disappearance.
Mr Adams had not used his bank account since November 16, 2005, when he withdrew his unemployment benefit -- all that was in the account.
"It was not a big amount of money," said Mr Turner.
The missing man failed to keep appointments with Work and Income that month and his benefit was stopped.
He had not used his cellphone for any outward calls since December 13 that year.
Mr Adams was reported missing on April 18, 2006, by his mother, who lives in Auckland.
She told police his failure to make contact at Christmas and for other family events, including the birthday of his daughter (now aged 10), was "totally out of character".
Mr Turner said the inquiry file had gone through other police districts before it was established that Tauranga was the last place Mr Adams had been seen.
Before that, he had been living in Napier until about October, 2005.
Police could not pinpoint when they think he may have died, but it could have been mid to late December that year, he said.
The missing man had convictions for minor drug offending and assault. A warrant was still out for his arrest for an assault in a Tauranga city night club.
Tauranga police had been working on the investigation since June last year but the amount of serious crime in the Western Bay of Plenty meant it had not always had priority.
"We are as confident as we can be that he has not left the country," Mr Turner said.
"We have interviewed a lot of people."
The drug element made it difficult to get information and to locate possible witnesses.
Detectives had now exhausted all avenues and were appealing to anyone who had had any form of contact with Grant Trevor Mr Adams in the second half of 2005, or since then, to come forward with information.
"There are a number of people from different gangs and the criminal underground who may know what has happened to him," Mr Turner said.
Police were keen to locate Mr Adams for the sake of his family and "so he can get the burial he deserves".
Any person with information is asked to contact the Operation GRANITE inquiry team at Tauranga Police Station 07 577 4300 or 0800 SPEAK UP.
- NZPA
