Jurors told trip taken to buy P

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Details of an alleged trip by Hamilton Mongrel Mob members to Auckland to purchase the drug P were revealed in court yesterday.

Jurors at the High Court in Hamilton were played intercepted phone calls between gang members and associates which the Crown says showed the gang planned to purchase methamphetamine from an Auckland supplier.

Implicated in the alleged plan was the Hamilton gang's president, Sonny John Fatu. Fatu, 43, and co-accused Paul Mark Golding, 44, Priscilla Paretutaki Hayward-Howie, 41, Rocky James Manga, 30, Mose Douglas Iakopo, 28, and Michael Ormsby, 27, are charged with conspiracy to supply methamphetamine.

The accused, with the exception of Golding, also face a charge of conspiracy to sell cannabis. Ormsby faces a further charge of conspiracy to supply lysergide (LSD).

The charges were brought as part of a 2 1/2-month covert drug investigation in 2007, dubbed Operation Forest, in which police intercepted text messages and phone calls between members and associates of the Hamilton Mongrel Mob.

The Crown says the intercepted communications featured coded messages which show the gang was involved in drug dealing. Yesterday, jurors heard phone calls and read text messages around the time several of the accused travelled to Auckland to purchase "airfares".

The Crown alleges the trip's purpose was to purchase $16,000 worth of methamphetamine from alleged King Cobras gang member Golding.

In one text message, sent from Fatu to alleged gang member Mark Griffiths, the accused said he was willing to pay $1300 for an airfare.

Jurors were told that during the trip, the group were stopped by armed offenders squad members and "interrogated" at an Auckland police station. No methamphetamine was found in the group's car. The trial continues.

- © Fairfax NZ News