Heroin landed at Karamea, Court told

Press, 26 July 1979, Page 6

Heroin landed at Karamea, Court told

A woman told a depositions hearing yesterday that an Auckland property developer gave her three kilograms of heroin in a Bangkok hotel, with instructions to take it to Bali. The woman, whose name was suppressed, was giving evidence on the second day of the hearing, in the Magistrate’s Court at Auckland.

Appearing' before Mr J. R. Aubin, S.M., is Brian James Curtis, aged 45, of Glen Eden. He is charged with importing heroin at Karamea.

The woman and two other witnesses have been given immunity from prosecution on charges which may arise from their evidence. The woman said that in November last year she was on a yacht, with Curtis, her boyfriend add a Tongan navigator; The. yacht went to Bali, where Curtis went ashore to collect , a telegram concerning a) cannabis deal, she

said. When he returned he told her that it was not there and that he was going to Singapore to see his sister.

When he returned he asked her to go to Thailand with him and bring back some heroin. Curtis said she would get $3OOO and a free trip to Thailand, witness said.

Witness said they flew to Thailand a few days later and she booked into a Bangkok hotel under an assumed name. Curtis rang her the next day and told her he would bring the heroin the day after.

The next afternoon he twice came to her room with heroin, she said. He packed it into the back of a radio. “He said there'was three kilograms.” she said: “He said if I blew it he would kill me.” She took the radio back to Bali in her luggage, and the next day the yacht sailed.

It arrived back in New Zealand in early March. Because of unfavourable sea conditions they could not. land where planned, and decided to go south, to Karamea, witness said. From the West Coast, witness said, she went to Christchurch with the defendant, where he met his wife. They then travelled to Auckland. and witness booked into the Hotel Intercontinental. Curtis told her a man named Mick would meet her in the foyer. “He (Mick) took me to his car and I gave him the heroin,” witness said. The next day Curtis gave her two cheques, for $2OO each. While staying in the hotel she had used some of the heroin, witness said. It was much better than heroin she had used in the past. The hearing continues today.