School governor smuggled $3m of P

By NICOLA BOYES

A man who smuggled nearly $3 million worth of 'P' into the country while sitting on the board of one of Auckland's top private schools has pleaded guilty to his part in an international drug ring.

David Cyrus Shaida faces life imprisonment after drugs with a street value of up to $2 million were found in his suitcase during an airport search.

Another stash worth as much as $900,000 was found down the back of a couch in his Remuera home.

The 47-year-old businessman resigned from the board of King's School in Remuera after he was arrested in March for importing and possessing the class-A drug methamphetamine for supply.

The lure of big money tempted the then export manager for Jason Products, which makes placemats, into getting involved in the drug world last year when an Iranian associate asked him to do his first drug run.

Shaida told police he was having "personal and financial difficulties" so agreed to get involved. He fell out with an Auckland-based syndicate and began dealing directly with the heads of the Malaysian drug ring.

Police say he had nearly $2 million worth of high-quality P when he was stopped at Auckland Airport on his way back from Singapore on March 28 this year.

They found a further $900,000 worth hidden behind a couch in the home he shared with his wife and three children.

The street purity level of methamphetamine in New Zealand is between 60 and 70 per cent, but police say Shaida's 1.9kg was 80 per cent pure.

One gram of P fetches between $600 and $1000 in New Zealand.

Shaida pleaded guilty to the charges when he appeared in the Auckland District Court on Friday and was remanded in custody for sentencing on September 21.

He had introduced business associate Theodoor Graaf to the Auckland-based syndicate but Graaf, who has also pleaded guilty to drug dealing, ended up going to the Malaysian syndicate's heads and convinced Shaida to do the same.

Shaida would fly between New Zealand and Singapore, bringing home high-quality methamphetamine, then await directions on where the drugs were to go. He was paid US$15,000 for each run he made between Malaysia and Japan.

He told police he also took large sums of money from New Zealand to Malaysia to deliver to the syndicate.

Last February, he travelled to Frankfurt and back to New Zealand via Singapore, and he made three trips to Singapore in March.

On his third trip to Singapore he travelled to Malaysia to meet the head of a Malaysian methamphetamine drug syndicate.

Customs officers stopped him on his way back into New Zealand and found three packages of P in a zip compartment of his suitcase.

He told police he expected to hold on to the drugs for 10 days before being told by his Malaysian contacts to take the drugs to Japan. He had hoped the run was going to bring in between US$25,000 and US$30,000.

The High Court had granted an interception warrant on March 15, for what police suspected was an Iranian drug syndicate, and electronic surveillance revealed Shaida, who has no previous criminal history, as a target.

He and Graaf were two of three businessmen arrested. The third is defending the charges.