RESIDENTS DROP BID TO REMOVE ACCUSED

Residents of an Auckland apartment block that houses suspected heroin
trafficker Hing Hung Wong have shelved a legal bid to have him thrown
out.

Many of the more than 200 inhabitants are angry that they are sharing
the block with a man alleged to be linked with one of the biggest
heroin shipments seized in the United States.

But a spokesman for the body corporate that looks after the interests
of residents said yesterday that time and cost had beaten their plan
to take the issue to court.

Wong, aged 37, is alleged to have plotted to ship 256kg of heroin to
California in the mid-1990s. The Auckland businessman was granted bail
last month for his extradition hearing, which begins on June 19.

Judge Robert Kerr ordered that the name of the building be kept
secret. Wong paid $100,000 for two guards to watch him 24 hours a day,
a further $200,000 as a bond, is monitored with a radio anklet, is
allowed no access to cellphones or the Internet and agreed to let
police bug his phone.

The body corporate spokesman said residents "kept hitting brick walls"
as they tried to have Wong evicted. The main problems were cost and
the likelihood that Wong would be due to shift out by the time the
challenge reached court.

However, they still planned to take action if Wong's bail was reviewed
at the extradition hearing.

The spokesman said Wong was staying in a room because of "some
convoluted arrangement" between developers and the original owners.

"It does affect morale, and people are getting uptight. There's a lack
of activity in the building and the Asian [residents] are very quiet."

Another resident said she was amazed that Wong could stay, when other
people had been evicted for loud parties.

"It's irritating for us to be an outreach of Mt Eden Prison. He's here
at our unease."

But Wong's lawyer, John Haigh, QC, said Wong had strictly complied
with his bail terms and there was no foundation to the concerns.

Residents won a small victory two weeks ago when they forced guards to
remove a monitoring box from the gym, meaning Wong's anklet no longer
worked there and he had to have exercise gear shifted into his room.

Mr Haigh said Wong accepted that he was now confined to his apartment,
except when visiting legal advisers.

A US judge issued a warrant for Wong's arrest last July 23 on three
counts of distributing and possessing at least 1kg of heroin at a time
in Thailand, Hong Kong and New York between 1985 and 1995.