$18M ECSTASY CASE COLLAPSES OVER POLICE SILENCE ON
INFORMER

A multimillion-dollar drugs trial in the High Court at Auckland has
been aborted because the police have refused to reveal the identity of
an informer.

It is the second time the case, involving two South Africans and a
Zimbabwean charged with importing up to $18 million worth of the drug
Ecstasy, has collapsed.

A third trial is likely to be held early next year on 21 charges of
importing and selling Ecstasy and money laundering.

The question of whether the police have to reveal the name of the
informant in relation to two other charges of importing and having
Ecstasy for supply will be decided by a full bench of the Court of
Appeal in October.

Yesterday, in the High Court at Auckland, Justice Mark O'Regan
directed the jury to return not guilty verdicts against South Africans
Alexander Gavin Smith, aged 36, on both those counts and Edward
Wilcocks, 48, on the charge of possession of the drug for supply.

A directed verdict means that the two charges can be laid again if the
Court of Appeal rules police do not have to reveal the informant's
name.

In abandoning the trial, Justice O'Regan told the jury that he had
ruled that Smith's lawyer, Rob Harrison, could cross-examine police
officers about the identity of their source.

But the police had a policy of not disclosing the names of informants
and prosecutors Ross Burns and David Johnstone had decided to offer no
evidence on those two counts.

The Crown, however, had asked the judge to direct verdicts of not
guilty so that the issue could be tested by a panel of five Court of
Appeal judges.

Justice O'Regan said he had agreed that the issue should be determined
by the higher court as there was little case law on the subject.

Outside the court Mr Harrison said: "The defence contention was that
it was necessary to know who the informant was because the accused, Mr
Smith, alleged he had been set up by the informant, and that the
informant was actually the importer." It is understood that this is
the first time that a court has ordered the police to name an informer.

The secret information related to a May 2002 shipment of drugs from
Durban - allegedly the last of seven consignments - which the police
say contained 36,000 tablets with a street value of between $2.2
million and $2.8 million.

The other six importing charges were laid after the police worked back
through shipping and travel documents from South Africa over the
previous 2 1/2 years following the drug seizure at an Albany lock-up
unit.

Police believe that the earlier shipments contained about the same
number of tablets, making the total street value about $18 million.

In addition to the importing charge, Smith faced six other importing
charges jointly with 51-year-old former Zimbabwean Robert Charles De
Bruin.

They also faced charges of selling Ecstasy and laundering drug
money.

Yesterday, Wilcocks was served with a removal order from New Zealand.
The police will have to bring him back if the Court of Appeal orders a
retrial on his charge.

De Bruin was given bail and Smith is to apply for bail.