“Currently in New Zealand the best way to make money is to sell Methamphetamine.” Fighting the Demon explores the business of meth.
More than 500kg of meth was hidden inside steel beams imported from the United States in September.
An investigation led to the arrest of a specialist working in the Auckland construction sector.
Name suppression has lapsed for the 52-year-old who plans to ‘vigorously’ defend the charges.
An Auckland construction figure who allegedly smuggled 515kg of methamphetamine inside a shipment of steel beams from the United States can now be identified.
He was one of seven people arrested in October and charged with importing the Class-A drug following Operation Girder, a joint investigationby police and Customs.
The drugs bust was one of the largest in New Zealand history.
Customs analysts flagged the shipment for inspection in September which uncovered “inconsistencies” in some of the 42 steel beams, which led to the consignment being X-rayed and the meth found.
The investigation expanded to include the National Organised Crime Group (NOCG) and the operation conducted a “controlled delivery” of the steel beams, in an attempt to identify the network behind the importation.
The consignment was tracked to a rural Waikato address where police found two men - who had flown from Australia - allegedly in the process of “deconstructing” the steel beams to access the drugs inside.
Police also found a military-style semiautomatic rifle and ammunition at the property.
One of the men charged with importing 515kg of methamphetamine is a construction sector figure from Auckland who was granted name suppression at his first appearance in court.
He pleaded not guilty to the serious charge - which carries a maximum penalty of a life sentence - and had been fighting to keep his identity secret until now.
But his legal bid for ongoing name suppression was abandoned several days before the case was to be heard in the Auckland District Court on Friday.
He can now be identified as John Anthony Giles, 52, who is a professional quantity surveyor.
Defence lawyer Matthew Goodwin said his client decided to not pursue continued name suppression as he was now confident that publication of his name would not destroy his business.
“Mr Giles maintains that he is innocent of the charges he faces and will vigorously defend those at trial,” Goodwin said.
Court documents show that the 42 steel beams from the United States were imported into New Zealand by a company of which Giles is the sole director and shareholder.
When Customs became suspicious about the steel beams and asked questions about the shipment, Giles explained that he was a quantity surveyor who managed construction projects for commercial clients.
The steel beams were for a client involved in the oil industry, Giles said to a senior Customs investigator.
After the 515kg of methamphetamine was discovered, Giles admitted to police that he had arranged for the steel to be imported but denied any knowledge of the drugs hidden inside.
The lapsing of name suppression for Giles has come as a relief to his former employer Charlie Waide, the managing director of Waide Commercial Construction in Auckland.
Construction industry figure John Anthony Giles, 52, has pleaded not guilty to importing 515kg of methamphetamine hidden inside steel beams exported from the United States in September 2024. Photo / Supplied
At the time of the alleged offending, Waide said Giles had “effectively finished” working for him to establish his own consultancy as a quantity surveyor.
But the combination of police executing a search warrant at Giles’ office at Waide Commercial Construction in October, and the ongoing name suppression, meant Waide could not defend the company from damaging speculation in building circles.
“We are appalled by these charges. To be absolutely clear - Waide Commercial Construction had no involvement whatsoever in the alleged offending,” Charlie Waide said.
“We have co-operated fully with the police throughout this matter and nothing communicated to us by the authorities links Waide Commercial Construction or any of our people to these charges in any way.”
Since learning of the charges against Giles, Waide said his company had completed a comprehensive internal investigation.
“There is no record, no evidence, and no suggestion that Waide’s name, reputation, or resources were used in connection with these alleged crimes - either directly or indirectly,” said Waide.
“This is the first opportunity we have had, to publicly state, unequivocally, that no one at Waide Commercial Construction was involved.”
The oil industry figure who allegedly engaged Giles to import the steel beams was also charged with importing a Class-A drug and granted name suppression.
The non-publication orders will be argued at a court hearing in May.
The 515kg of methamphetamine seized in Operation Girder is the third-largest importation found at New Zealand’s border and the latest in a disturbing upward trend.
For many years, a kilogram of meth was considered a significant drug bust, and the record of 95kg discovered during Operation Major in 2006 was seen as an outlier.
But since 2015, New Zealand Police and Customs noticed an upswing in the size of meth shipments, and increasingly cocaine, to the point where 100kg is now almost routine.
New Zealand is a small drug market, but one of the most lucrative. A kilogram of meth, worth just a few thousand dollars in Southeast Asia or Mexico, can command $100,000 to $160,000 here.
These profits attracted the attention of global organised crime groups and led to a radical shift in New Zealand’s criminal landscape.
The record was smashed by the 501kg smuggled into the country from a “mother ship” off the coast of 90 Mile Beach in Northland in 2016.
In 2019, there was another police investigation where 500kg was smuggled into Whakatāne and a Customs operation where 469kg was stopped at the border.
The record was broken again by 613kg smuggled on a flight from Malaysia in February 2022 which was destined for the Comancheros motorcycle gang. Twelve months later, this was dwarfed by the 713kg discovered inside maple syrup bottles from Canada.
While not stopped at the border, the largest cache of the drug was uncovered after the death of Aiden Sagala, 21, who unwittingly drank liquid methamphetamine from a can of beer.
Detectives investigating his death raided a warehouse in Manukau filled with more than 700kg of meth.
Jared Savage is an award-winning journalist who covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006, and is the author of Gangland and Gangster’s Paradise.
