Two suppliers remanded to prison

John Waterworth (right) and Adamu Awahdi pleading guilty yesterday to supplying drugs. Picture / Paul Estcourt

The linchpin in a drug conspiracy that dented the reputations of three sporting personalities, a property developer and a former Miss New Zealand yesterday admitted a raft of charges.

John Francis Waterworth pre-empted a High Court trial by pleading guilty to 16 counts, including supplying cocaine, supplying Ecstasy and conspiring to supply the drugs.

His co-accused, Adamu Shazizi Awahdi, 31, also pleaded guilty to two charges of supplying Ecstasy and a charge of conspiring to supply Ecstasy.

A police source yesterday estimated Waterworth could have made up to $71,000 from Ecstasy sales alone in the period investigators monitored his activities in June-July last year.

He had a number of high-profile customers to his home in central Auckland's Citylife Hotel, among them former All Black Marc Ellis.

Ellis and an associate known as "Willer" met Waterworth on June 25 last year and arranged to buy 10 Ecstasy tablets. Ellis was later convicted of possessing Ecstasy and fined $300.

Just two days later, Auckland property developer David Henderson approached Waterworth to buy 10 grams of the Class A drug cocaine for himself and his "greedy mates".

When told the drug was at least three weeks away, he jokingly suggested to Waterworth that they go to Colombia themselves.

Henderson was convicted and given a suspended sentence in September last year for attempting to buy cocaine.

A visit to Waterworth's home on June 30 last year by Brent Todd culminated yesterday in the former rugby league star pleading guilty to a charge of procuring cocaine.

Todd emerged from Auckland District Court yesterday $500 poorer and lamenting having done a "silly, silly" thing.

Former beauty queen Lana Coc-Kroft - while never investigated or charged - had to embark on damage control after her name came up in conversations captured by police surveillance.

In a statement this year, she said: "This upsetting affair has come about because a group of guys under the influence started throwing my name around ... I wasn't part of the conversation, because I wasn't there."

Former All Black Josh Kronfeld was recorded on one surveillance tape describing the effects of Waterworth's drugs, but he, too, was never charged.

According to court documents, Waterworth sold Ecstasy for up to $65 a tablet, a 100 per cent markup on the $30 he paid his supplier, Awahdi.

Between June 20 and July 19 last year, Awahdi supplied Waterworth with 1156 Ecstasy tablets, in consignments of 100 on June 24, 200 on July 1, 200 on July 5 and 250 on July 13.

Waterworth is understood by one police estimate to have paid about $35,000 for the tablets.

Both men were yesterday remanded in custody for a High Court sentencing on October 27.