Now imprisoned Tongan businessman, Mosese Uele, was yesterday identified in a New Zealand Court as being the alleged “inside man” for a major illegal drug trafficking operation between China and New Zealand.

Mosese was arrested by Auckland police in 2013 after he was caught in a van transporting 250 kilos of drug making materials called pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient used to make Methamphetamine.

Mosese was the owner of an Auckland based company called Ezi World Cargo. According to the New Zealand Courts, Mosese used his position as a cargo operator to help transfer illegal drugs from China into New Zealand. He is currently spending 5 ½ years in a New Zealand prison after pleading guilty to drug charges in 2014.

Alleged supplier

Now on trial in Auckland, a Chinese born mother of three, Yixin Gan (35) is alleged to have been the supplier of the drugs. She formerly resided in Tonga before moving to New Zealand in the year 2000. Yixin is alleged to have smuggled pseudoephedrine into New Zealand via food shipments destined for Tonga. Her trial started in the HIgh Court at Auckland on April 18.

Yixin ran a food shipment company in China that shipped Chinese food products to the Pacific Islands. She is alleged to have smuggled drugs on board freight ships carrying her food products. She allegedly hid the pseudoephedrine in potato starch destined for Tonga. As the freight ship transited Auckland for Tonga, her "inside man" Mosese is alleged to have replaced the boxes of drugs with real potatoes and then transferred the drugs into a van for transportation to safe houses in Auckland.

According to the New Zealand Crown prosecution, Uele had been under police survellience before his capture. The prosecution stated “It was almost the perfect scam – but for Gan’s involvement with two people, who unfortunately for her, were under surveillance by the police. Otherwise, it is very unlikely this scam would have ever come to light."

“There are vast amounts of cash deposits coinciding with other shipments from China, through Uele, onwards to Tonga," the prosecution stated.