Humble start for ‘Mr Asia’

Press, 5 November 1979, Page 1

Humble start for ‘Mr Asia’

PA Auckland An Auckland man who walked out of his job as a Queen Street, Auckland, shop assistant to set up a vast Pacific narcotics smuggling ring, has become the latest victim of drug world violence. British police refuse to reveal details about the man, whose handless corpse was dragged from a water-filled quarry in Lancashire almost three weeks ago. However, Australian detectives, who are hunting the killers of a young New Zealand couple, Douglas and Isobel Wilson, are believed to have identified the dead man as Christopher Martin Johnstone. Johnstone, who was known as “Marty,” was said to be “a very close associate,” of a man police want to interview in connection with the death of the Wilsons. Johnstone was involved in importing marijuana into New Zealand and later moved into the heroin trade.

He was reputed to be “very, very high up,” in a drug-running syndicate operating between SouthEast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, according to one detective, and in New Zealand and Australia was known as “Mr Asia,” according to a NZPA message from London.

Police sources said he may have been killed after betraying the syndicate over a big drug deal. The officer leading the Inquiry, Detective Superintendent Ray Rimmer, said: “There are still a lot of inquiries to go ahead and lives could be at stake if too much is revealed at present.” However, New Zealand detectives have studied a photograph of the dead man and are convinced that it is Johnstone.

Johnstone, who W’as aged 28, was alleged to be head of a heroin smuggling ring with bases in Singapore. Sydney, Melbourne, and Auckland. Recent reports indicated that the syndicate was extending its activities to the United States.

Johnstone, whose parents are separated and live in Auckland, had a number of jobs after leaving school before settling down as an assistant behind the counter of a Queen Street shop. Intelligence sources say he was involved in the importation of marijuana worth S 4 million into New Zealand from Thailand about four years ago.

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