‘Identities taken from dead children by drug ring’

Press, 22 October 1981, Page 7

‘Identities taken from dead children by drug ring’

Pa Auckland A High Court jury in Auckland has been told that it will hear evidence of an Auckland-based drug importing conspiracy using Air New Zealand DClOs and false identities taken from children buried in Auckland cemeteries.

Mr David Morris, for the Crown, was opening the prosecution case against Colin James Prast. aged 41. a Hillsborough company director, and Glenda Faye Menzies, aged 26. a former bank teller, of Avondale, on the Second day of a trial expected to last at least three weeks.

Mr Morris told the jury that it would probably be the first in New Zealand"to hear conversations “bugged” by the police under power’s given them in the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Act. 1975. The recordings, made from electronic listening devices, may be played to the Court, he "said. Prast and' Menzies have denied a joint charge of importing heroin on March 9 at Christchurch, and two counts of importing morphine on December 3 and April 11. Prast has denied a further charge of importing morphine on September 24 at Christchurch last year. They have also denied three ’ counts of supplying, two of conspiring to supply and two of conspiring to import heroin and morphine. Mr Morris told the jury: "All charges relate to drugs running, peddling and dealing. in a way which involved very substantial sums of money, international travel on a regular basis and large quantities of drugs." He said the evidence would "establish beyond

doubt that the brains behind the’scheme was Prast."

Menzies, he alleged, was the distributor who. overseen by Prast. fed the narcotics to drug users and suppliers within New Zealand.

Drugs deals were allegedly arranged overseas by accomplices travelling from New Zealand on false passports to avoid the close scrutiny the Customs Department gave frequent travellers, Mr Morris said.

False passports were allegedly gained by using the birth certificate of a dead person who would have been the same age, had the person lived, as the individual seeking the passport, he said.

Late in 1979, Mr Morris said, one of the alleged conspirators borrowed the identity of a boy. aged six. who died in 1946 and was buried in Purewa Cemetery.

“That became the modus operandi of the group,” he told Mr Justice Holland and the jury. Evidence would be given of other trips overseas allegedly made on several different false passports issued to names appearing on gravestones in the Hillsborough cemetery near Prast’s home.

The deception was possible. he said, because details of a person's death were not stamped on to his birth certificate.

Mr Morris said police who searched Prast’s Hillsborough home in April this year found a United States publication detailing the birth certificate ruse which was “adopted literally to the letter” bv Prast. He said the searchers also found "a library of airline timetables that would do justice to a travel agent." The drug importing

scheme allegedly also involved a senior "cabin steward of Air New Zealand, who knew a method of bringing goods into New Zealand avoiding Customs checks, Mr Morris said.

It involved using a compartment on DCIO aircraft. Prast allegedly told another person in a bugged telephone conversation that the system could only be operated until May this year when Boeing 7475, which do not contain the compartment, were to replace the DClOs. Mr Morris told the jury the police power to use electronic listening devices was "strictly controlled" by the terms of a warrant which had to first be obtained from a High Court judge. • Some of the recordings which might be played to the Court were clear, he said. Some were not clear because of background noise. Mr Morris said the Court would hear testimony from alleged co-conspirators whose names had been suppressed. Some of them had pleaded guilty to charges and others had been granted immunity from prosecution by the Solicitor-General.

They wet;e “tainted witnesses” and the jury should look for corroboration of their evidence, he said. Mr Morris said that a shipment of morphine, with a street value of $250,000 was only part of a “quite staggering” quantity of drugs brought in to the country by the Auckland-based syndicate.

He said that the evidence would establish that the accused were involved in bringing heroin and morphine into New Zealand on a commercial scale for profit and distribution throughout the country. Police had recovered only

one shipment of 605 grams in April, he said.

It was a well-considered operation involving the expenditure of tens -of thousands of dollars. The chances of detection had been kept to a minimum, and it was only a fortuitous occurrence that the scheme and its extent had been detected at all.

Mr Morris said the jury would hear from two women drug users whose source of supply was the accused. Menzies. The women, who have been given 'name suppression. frequently visited Menzies' Coronet Place house, the outgoings of which were paid by Prast. They would give evidence about "persons they saw arriving at Coronet Place, and police would say that those people were well-known in drug circles. Jurors would hear about a young woman who visited Coronet Place on April 4 and who died in a motor accident at Taupo on April 6. Police’ investigating the accident discovered 16 sachets of white powder, a mixture of heroin and mor-

phine in the car. It was the Crown’s case that she got the drug from Coronet Place, he said.

They would also hear evidence that the police followed Menzies and a man called Dennis Popham on April 10 to a bush reserve in Titirangi. When they got to the reserve Menzies went into the bush for a few minutes.

On the way back the police chased and stopped Menzies' car in Hillsborough Road. Popham was seen to swallow something and later while in police custody his condition deteriorated, requiring emergency medical treatment.

Mr Morris said that when the contents of his stomach were analysed a mixture of morphine and heroin was found.

It was probable that without medical treatment, Popham would have died. Mr Morris and Mr Stuart Grieve appear for the Crown. Prast is represented by Mr Barry Wilson and Miss Mary Kennedy, and Menzies by Mr Graeme Jenkins and Miss Lowell Goddard. (Proceeding)