ECSTASY SNARE LANDS TRIO IN COURT

Three men will stand trial over New Zealand's largest Ecstasy haul
after police and customs intercepted a BMW gearbox stuffed with 25,000
tablets, and laid an elaborate trap.

Guo Ming Cai, Eric Yuk Chu Lo and Simon Wu were yesterday committed
for trial on charges of importing Ecstasy and possessing the class B
drug after written depositions presented in the Auckland District
Court alleged that the trio were caught red-handed.

Police and customs officials in January raided a Great South Rd motel
room where Cai and Lo were found standing over the dismantled gearbox,
which had contained an estimated $2.5 million of Ecstasy.

But what Cai and Lo thought were thousands of Ecstasy tablets were
placebo pills planted in the gearbox by a senior customs officer after
seizing the real consignment on its arrival from Belgium.

Customs officer Bruce Berry had also coated the tablets' plastic
packet and the gearbox with a fluorescent dye.

Ultra-violet light subsequently revealed traces of the dye on Cai and
Lo's hands and clothing.

The random decision to inspect the gearbox when it arrived at Auckland
International Airport on January 15 yielded more than 25,100
terracotta-coloured tablets embossed with a tulip.

An x-ray had showed the gearbox had "a large area of shading inside
the bellhousing cavity ... that was consistent with a concealment of a
foreign nature."

While police and customs were uncovering the record haul, Cai, Lo and
Wu were allegedly making preparations for the arrival of the gearbox.

Motel rooms and a vehicle were hired and paid for with a "thick wad"
of $100 notes, and one motelier described the Asian man she dealt with
as appearing anxious. "His eyes were wide and darting all around the
place," she told police.

Wu allegedly arranged for an Otahuhu panelbeater to unwittingly pose
as the package's recipient and for a friend of his to collect it from
the airport once it cleared customs.

Unbeknown to the trio, however, Customs officials and police were
tracking the gearbox, culminating in raids on the motel room and Wu's
home the night the package was collected.

Cai, aged 38, Lo, 41, and Wu, 32, will stand trial in the High Court
at Auckland before the end of the year.