‘Now it’s game time boys’: What police heard as defendants unloaded meth in maple syrup bottles

Monday, 16 June 2025

As pallets of maple syrup were unloaded at a rural North-West Auckland property in February 2023, four men didn’t realise they were being watched and secretly recorded by police.

“Now it’s game time boys,” said one.

“They’re all maple syrup… the bro from jail wouldn’t do all of this eh… no white shit eh,” another could be heard saying.

The four men kept looking until they found what the Crown allege they were looking for - white crystals of methamphetamine.

At that point, police swooped and arrested the quartet.

Three of them - Robert Talati, Liam Quade Prasad and Tayzel Tupou-Toka Tini - are now in the dock at the High Court at Auckland, charged with possessing methamphetamine for supply.

They have all pleaded not guilty with lawyers on their behalf saying they’d been offered cash for jobs by a man called Patrick Chand. Their lawyers said none of them were aware they’d been tasked to unload methamphetamine.

Prosecutor Kasey Nihill told the jury on Monday, that Chand has admitted his role in the 713kg Customs and police bust of methamphetamine found hidden in the maple syrup bottles that had arrived in New Zealand from Canada.

Nihill said this case was about the importation of 18 pallets of maple syrup that had arrived at the Ports of Auckland in January 2023.

A Senior Customs Officer was working at the sea cargo facility on the day the pallets were examined.

The pallets were put through an x-ray and while some boxes contained legitimate bottles of maple syrup, the officer noticed anomalies with other bottles.

When she examined those boxes she noticed bottles were dirty and had been tampered with.

A positive result for methamphetamine was produced using a narcotics test, Herbert said.

The Customs officer said she selected one bottle and found stones inside and a bag containing 1kg of white crystals.

Earlier on Monday, Nihill told the jury in total eight of the 18 pallets contained methamphetamine with a total weight of 713kg.

A controlled delivery was planned.

On February 8 at a Helensville address, before the other men had been arrested, they were watched by police unloading the pallets from the controlled delivery with the aid of a forklift.

“The men in the shed knew they weren’t there for maple syrup… they were there looking for ‘white stuff’,” Nihill said.

Police observed and listened to them chatting and pouring out maple syrup until they found the bags of white crystals.

“It could be any of these eh… oh not all of them have it,” one defendant said.

When police arrested the men they found boxes of maple syrup strewn on the ground, sledge hammers, an axe, safety goggles and more tools.

When Tini and Prasad were arrested, they told police the didn’t know what they were unpacking and while they thought it might be drugs they couldn’t leave as they’d arrived with Chand.

The fourth defendant charged in relation to the bust is Wenfu Zhang. He’s facing charges of importing the methamphetamine and attempting to possess the Class A drug. Like his co-accused, he’s pleaded not guilty.

When the pallets arrived at the port in January 2023, Nihill said pallets 1-10 were set to be delivered to a man called Bruce Hu. She said this was an alias created by Zhang.

Those pallets were to be delivered to a supermarket on Dominion Rd where Zhang had rented a storage room.

According to Zhang’s phone communications, he’d been speaking to a customs broker and confirmed the delivery.

“ASAP would be better,” Zhang said in one message.

Unbeknown to Zhang, his phone communications had been intercepted by police.

On February 9, a day after the Helensville bust, a police officer posing as a delivery driver met Zhang at Dominion Rd. Zhang was arrested and police found the phone connected to “Bruce Hu”.

Zhang told police he was to be paid $2000 for his efforts and didn’t think the pallets contained drugs.

He also told police that there’d been an earlier import in December 2022 that were been stored at a Dairy Flat address - police found maple syrup bottles there that Zhang said he’d been struggling to sell.

His phone was seized and on it police found internet searches of prestige brand maple syrup, photos of maple syrup, pictures of white crystals and large bundles of cash.

Nihill said the prosecution allege Zhang knew the shipment contained methamphetamine and was part of the importation.

“Why pay someone $2000 to receive maple syrup?” Nihill questioned.

But Zhang’s lawyer, Graeme Newell, told the jury his client did not in anyway cause the drugs to be introduced into the country.

“Any role he did play in relation to that shipment of maple syrup…he did without the knowledge it contained drugs…let alone 118kg of methamphetamine.”

The trial before Justice Simon Mount KC and a jury continues.