The New Zealand Herald is bringing back some of the best premium stories of 2021. Today we take a look at New Zealand's meth crisis.
Operation Notus and the downfall of Mob boss
Frank Milosevic had mana and respect in Kawerau, as the leader of the local Mongrel Mob chapter. But a local constable knew Milosevic's $100,000 ute and other assets came from selling methamphetamine, which was destroying the fabric of the town.
Reporter Jared Savage specialises in organisedcrime and had followed Operation Notus since the first arrests were made in March 2018. The investigation was an innovative approach by police to work with iwi and other government agencies and considered a model for future operations in small rural towns.
However, the truth was that an overstretched Bay of Plenty police force was too busy to tackle the meth problem in Kawerau, until a local cop went to the top seeking outside help. Savage used the Official Information Act to obtain the documents he needed for this exclusive story, which he combined with evidence from trial and other interviews.
Emails to Police Commissioner Mike Bush in 2017 led to the Operation Notus being launched to investigate the Mongrel Mob in Kawerau. Photo / Jason Oxenham
The rural towns bearing the brunt
Following Operation Notus, the police media team declined to answer questions about Kawerau's wastewater drug results. Again, Savage used the Official Information Act to obtain all available data as the basis for this investigation with Herald data journalist Keith Ng, which for the first time in New Zealand mapped the ugly story of the country's ongoing meth crisis broken down town by town.
Two decades after meth first took hold, New Zealand has failed to curb the drug's popularity and the devastating social harm caused by addiction.
Global crime syndicates are sending shipments of methamphetamine weighing up to 500kg to New Zealand. Photo / Police
Guns for meth
Savage also went on to investigate a methamphetamine dealer who was using proxies to buy firearms on his behalf.
The methamphetamine dealer was caught illegally acquiring guns for supply to the criminal black market by getting friends with firearms licences to visit gun stores on his behalf.
The dealer tried to buy an ounce of methamphetamine from a Killer Beez gang member in exchange for a pistol and $3000. The text messages led police to discover a pipeline of illegal guns, described as the "tip of the iceberg".
A drug dealer paid nearly $9000 cash for five Alfa magnum revolver rifles, like this one, which were modified into handguns and sold to criminals. Photo / Supplied
