Ten men on trial accused of operating a lucrative and illegal Auckland designer drugs ring admit they were pressing pills and supplying them.
But Ron Mansfield, defence lawyer for the alleged ringleader who has name suppression, told a jury in the High Court at Auckland today the made-to-order drugs were legal at the time.
Arrested as part of police bust Operation Ark, the 10 men each face between two and 53 charges each involving class B and C drugs.
They imported chemicals, pressed pills and supplied them in what the Crown says was a lucrative venture worth millions of dollars involving "analogue controlled drugs", made to match the effects of methamphetamine or ecstasy.
But Mr Mansfield told the jury the chemicals used in the ring's pills were not illegal. If jurors, however, decided they were illegal, the trial evidence would not suggest, as is required for a conviction, the 10 men had knowledge of that.