The lab archive

The Press of 20 January names the three defendants on drug charges. Its 3 July report identifies a January search of Wayne Anthony Spackman’s Norwich Street home and a laboratory in the laundry. Richard Grant Cavaney, Spackman and Peter Wallace Marriott pleaded guilty on 2 July after the Crown amended manufacture to attempted manufacture; they also admitted the equipment charge. Sentencing was scheduled for 13 July. This is the earliest Christchurch case currently documented in this collection, not proof that no earlier laboratory existed.

Open: Recover the raid’s exact date and final sentencing decision. January and July reports describe different procedural charge stages; the intervening charging record is missing. A 15 January 1991 annual report independently mentions a Christchurch lab during 1990; it does not identify the street or defendants and is not a separate 1991 discovery. Follow-up searches through December 1990 and a focused July court-report check did not locate sentencing. The constructed 14 July 1990 issue URL returned 404; that does not establish that the paper or report never existed.

The Press, 20 January 1990, p6 — DRUGS subsection · The Press, 3 July 1990, p26 — Three plead guilty · The Press, 21 March 1990, p8 — Customs report · The Press, 15 January 1991 — 1990 annual seizure report

A Press reprint dates the Cheviot raid to 5 September 1996. The National Library catalogue of a 5 August 2005 report records Charles Score Sanders’s acquittal on drug charges. Cheviot is outside Christchurch; this is a Canterbury comparison, not an earlier city discovery.

Open: The acquittal is supported by catalogue metadata; recover the original report. Final outcomes for Drummond and Hamley remain unlocated.

National Library catalogue: The Press, 5 August 2005, pA4 — Sanders acquitted · Indexed reprint of The Press, 6 September and 4 October 1996; JCLIC 7(1), January 1997, p6 (original pages not recovered) · NZ Herald, 19 April 2005 — historical Cheviot lead

An IRN news item dated Wednesday 6 March, preserved in the 9 March WYSIWYG digest, reports a Hornby laboratory and three arrests with District Court appearances. It describes the previous city laboratory as Linwood in 1990. The August 2002 Wayback capture contains that passage. Its assertion about a New Zealand first is not adopted here: national histories use conflicting dates and drug definitions.

Open: Find the exact raid date, original newspaper coverage, defendant names and final outcomes. The digest does not explicitly connect the 1990 reference to the Norwich Street defendants.

IRN item dated 6 March 2002, in WYSIWYG News 9 March digest — verified Wayback capture · Surviving digest

Police reported recovering suspected methamphetamine-manufacturing equipment during searches in Belfast. A 39-year-old man was charged with possessing methamphetamine for supply; further charges were contemplated. The release supplies no defendant name or final verdict.

Open: Recover the laboratory assessment, defendant identity from lawful public reporting and court outcome.

NZ Police, 5 June 2003 — verified Wayback capture · NZ Police original release

A contemporary Press article says Christchurch’s latest laboratory had been found in a home about three weeks earlier, during an unrelated search. It describes a small box-sized kit. Early September is an approximate inference from that wording, not an exact raid date.

Open: No name, suburb or final case outcome is given. It could overlap an existing case; do not count it as a proven additional unique laboratory.

The Press, 27 September 2003 — Chemists Help in Drug Clampdown

Police reported a laboratory discovery following an alert from a motel operator. A 26-year-old man was charged with manufacture and possession for supply. The 16 October release described this as the first laboratory located in a Canterbury motel, while acknowledging earlier motel use. Earlier Christchurch discoveries are separately documented in this chronology.

Open: Identity and final court outcome not established.

Wayback: motel-2003

November 2003 coverage of a multi-city investigation mentions seized manufacturing equipment. Later reporting establishes an LSD sentence for Tael Nikolai Smolski, not a methamphetamine-manufacturing conviction. The equipment’s site and individual attribution remain unresolved.

Open: Obtain the seizure/site record and charge-by-charge dispositions. The drug offences of the named defendants cannot establish who possessed the equipment or whether a Christchurch laboratory operated.

The Press, 21 November 2003 — equipment mentioned in Syrup coverage · The Press, 3 December 2004 — Smolski sentence · NZ Police, 28 November 2003 — Operation Syrup follow-up

Contemporary reporting links Christchurch’s Operation Diablo with Dunedin’s Operation Mexican, beginning in August 2003. It identifies Pinehurst Crescent as a Christchurch location and records five men’s June 2004 convictions. Later reporting resolves three individual sentences, including Musselwhite’s separate 2009 case. Burnard’s and Brooking’s reported pre-trial discharges remain separately recorded.

Open: Original 17 July 2004 sentencing coverage is still needed for Tate, Rymer and Carruth, and to verify the retrospective Samson and Beattie terms against sentencing notes. Do not count the mobile laboratory’s different locations as separate laboratories without site records. The original Brooking discharge clipping remains missing. The 2025 Southland Diablo operation is unrelated on the evidence checked.

The Press, Dean Calcott, 19 June 2004 — complete contemporary text preserved by MAP / DanceSafe · ODT, 6 May 2009 — No early return to Britain for man sentenced for drug conspiracy · NZ Herald — retrospective statement of July 2004 five-year sentence · The Press / Stuff, April 2015 — retrospective Diablo sentence · National Library: Drug investigation named after Devil — The Press, 19 June 2004, pA17 · National Library: Committed for trial — The Press, 8 July 2004, pA3 · National Library: Jail time for drug conspiracy — The Press, 17 July 2004, pA2 · NZPA / NZ Herald, 1 May 2005 — discharge reported · Secondary-hosted Press report, 30 April 2005 — original clipping still needed

A 3 November 2006 report places the raid on 12 December 2005 and records four arrests. The High Court discharged Renee Frances Parata Salter: the evidence described did not establish her knowledge of the alleged operation. A PressReader entry dated 28 September 2007 indicates sentencing of two men, but its full article was not recovered. That entry is not used to assign a conviction or sentence to Salter.

Open: Recover the complete sentencing report and distinguish all defendants.

Herald: charges against teenager dismissed · The Press, 28 September 2007 — partial entry

Laboratory equipment was found in the school grounds during the September holidays. David Vi Vong later pleaded guilty to possession of a precursor substance and criminal nuisance endangering life. The 11 May 2007 report records a disputed-facts hearing and referral to the High Court for sentencing on 5 June. Despite its headline, it does not report an imposed sentence. The discovery does not establish that manufacture took place at the school.

Open: Final sentencing report not located.

Herald: equipment found at school · Herald: disputed facts and sentencing referral

A landlord’s complaint led to the laboratory investigation. The sentencing report gives Hayden Reginald Van Dijk six years after guilty pleas and Julian Vivian Alexander Paul Mackie one year of home detention following a conviction for allowing premises to be used. Its publication metadata is 16 April 2008; the visible January 2009 date is inconsistent with that metadata.

Open: Full Wayback copy and any later appeals not located.

Stuff: landlord alerted police

The March fire injured Jason Paul Hutcheson and damaged the house. An October report recorded guilty pleas and pending sentencing. The later Stuff sentencing report records a four-year prison term on 13 December 2007, with convictions including attempted manufacture, arson and related drug/equipment offences. The report’s visible 2009 date conflicts with its 2007 publication metadata.

Open: A complete archive copy and any appeal outcome remain unlocated.

Herald: October guilty-plea report · Stuff: sentencing report

Police found a laboratory while visiting a Shirley property on an unrelated matter. On 14 December 2007, Benn Francis Millward received three years after guilty pleas to manufacture and child ill-treatment offences. Desiree Antonia Bastiaanse admitted permitting premises to be used for manufacture and received six months’ home detention. This is separate from the Shirley motel discovery in 2011.

Open: Exact discovery date and later appeal history remain to be verified.

Herald: initial bail report · Herald: sentencing report

The prosecution covered 2007 discoveries at Hutcheson Street, a Jaguar, Halswell Road and Charnwood Crescent. On the Solicitor-General’s appeal, the Court of Appeal increased Scott Jason Smith’s sentence to six years and Lee-Ella Pauline Smith’s to three years on 20 June 2008. Lee-Ella was not involved at Charnwood. The suggested match between the Halswell nephew and an “apprentice cook” headline remains unproven.

Open: Recover the apprentice’s complete newspaper/court report. This is one prosecution file covering several sites, not one laboratory.

Wayback: hutcheson-police · Reproduced judgment: R v Smith [2008] NZCA 175 · Court of Appeal annual report 2008

A search following a stolen-car arrest uncovered a suspected laboratory. The 16 October 2007 publication metadata provides the date despite a January 2009 date displayed on the migrated page. Police described it as Canterbury’s 21st suspected lab that year. The report does not establish a manufacturing conviction.

Open: Final laboratory assessment and court outcome unlocated.

Stuff: suspected lab in Sumner Street

Reports describe a laboratory investigation involving a house and vehicle while police assisted child-protection staff. Two adults faced equipment and firearms allegations. The Herald’s structured publication date is 30 November 2007. A surviving Stuff report also has November 2007 publication metadata despite a visible 2009 date.

Open: Defendant outcomes and exact discovery day require further verification.

Herald: discovery and charges · Stuff: contemporary discovery report

The complete Court News report dated 9 May records a guilty plea to manufacture. A saved June homepage reports a two-and-a-half-year sentence, but the linked complete sentencing article remains missing. A National Library entry identifies The Press, 14 June 2008, page A5, as a further sentencing reference. First and last names are used because the surviving sources disagree on the middle name.

Open: A Police release records an Endeavour Street lab on 19 October 2007 and a 39-year-old woman arrested. The plea report gives Cruickshank’s age as 39 and the offending end date as 19 October. This is a possible match, not an established identification. Recover an explicit address link and the complete sentencing article.

Woman admits being ‘meth cook’ · Saved homepage sentencing preview · National Library: Woman jailed for meth lab · NZ Police release, 19 October 2007 — Infonews syndication

The laboratory was found on 15 April. The Press catalogue entry for 17 April names Kane Michael Wootton and Shannon Robert Page among four people charged. Their final outcomes are not established. Jeffery William Wyatt was arrested subsequently; Court News records his 20 May guilty plea, and a surviving sentencing report records three years on 19 June. It describes his role as armed security. Wyatt’s outcome must not be assigned to any other defendant.

Open: Obtain final outcomes for the other defendants; unknown does not mean withdrawn or convicted.

Wayback: tilford-police · The Press, 17 April 2008, A5 — catalogue · Meth lab charge admitted · Stuff: Wyatt sentenced · The Press, 20 June 2008, A6 — catalogue

Police reported laboratory equipment after warrants at two Hills Road addresses; four men and one woman faced manufacturing-related charges. The release described this as the ninth Christchurch lab found in 2008. The Press, 25 April 2008, A5, is catalogued as containing a map of all city P-lab busts over the preceding year.

Open: Recover the map and individual court outcomes.

Wayback: hills-police · National Library: Police quiet over P lab

Police used tear gas during the raid and reported finding equipment and chemicals. Two people were detained and a third was to be questioned. The original publication metadata gives 21 May 2008; the newspaper entry is dated 22 May. This is separate from the October 2007 Sumner Street discovery.

Open: Charges, laboratory assessment and final outcomes unlocated.

Stuff: suspected P-lab discovered in Spreydon · The Press, 22 May 2008, page 5 — partial

An archived Court News homepage contains “Guilty pleas halt meth lab trial” and says three defendants admitted charges. The complete story, identities and sentences have not been recovered. No connection to another case is inferred.

Open: Recover story.php?id=1307 or its newspaper syndication.

Archived homepage preview

Darren John Sykes received two years four months for manufacturing methamphetamine. The report locates the laboratory in a caravan in a Bexley property’s yard.

Open: Exact discovery date and any appeal unlocated.

Meth-lab ‘dabbler’ goes to jail

The operation involved multiple sites and defendants. In September 2012 Adam John Miles and Michael Leslie Smith were acquitted of conspiracy but convicted on other counts. Recovered judgments establish Miles’s five-year-five-month sentence and unsuccessful appeal, Smith’s three years ten months, and Rongjun Situ’s three years two months. Later reporting gives Matthew Allen Newton nine years seven months. John Douglas McKenzie received three years ten months in December 2013 after unsuccessful conviction appeals. Individual outcomes are detailed in the name register. Four further sentencing judgments and a later archived report now establish outcomes for Aitken, Manuel, Black, Harris and Linton; see their entries below. Manuel’s proven role was conspiracy to supply, not a conviction for operating a laboratory.

Open: Reconcile the individual sites and complete a charge-by-charge disposition table from the trial records. The recovered Smith judgment identifies Southey Street and Main South Road; other sentencing judgments identify additional sites. Court file CRI 2010-009-008952 links several defendants’ judgments. Mr Box and Lance Lee are mentioned in related judgments, but their identities and outcomes remain unresolved. Borland is named as sought in a 2010 catalogue; a charge or conviction has not been established. The follow-up has separate referenced-name entries for Mr Box and Lance Lee, but still no individual outcomes.

Wayback: granite-police · Wayback: press-3790378 · Five found guilty in Operation Granite drugs trial · Final drugs ring offender loses last appeal · Life ‘turns to muck’ for convicted drug conspirator · Judgment text: McKenzie v R [2013] NZCA 378, 19 August 2013 · Sentencing judgment text: R v Situ [2012] NZHC 3008, 1 November 2012 · Official Supreme Court judgment: McKenzie v R [2013] NZSC 109, 11 November 2013 · Sentencing judgment text: R v Smith [2012] NZHC 3003, 1 November 2012 · Sentencing judgment text: R v McKenzie [2013] NZHC 3351, 13 December 2013 · R v Aitken [2012] NZHC 2901 — 1 November 2012 · R v Manuel [2012] NZHC 264 — 23 February 2012 · R v Black [2012] NZHC 2902 — 1 November 2012 · R v Harris [2012] NZHC 2942 — 1 November 2012 · Court News, 1 November 2017 — verified Wayback capture, 10 March 2018 · Commissioner of Police v Linton [2024] NZHC 2591 — judgment text · National Library: Police analyse intercepted phone calls, texts — The Press, 24 June 2010, pA5

A 15 September 2010 article reports charges against Lee Andrew McCreath relating to an alleged laboratory in an unoccupied, earthquake-damaged house. A November 2011 Court News calendar later lists a sentencing. A calendar entry alone does not establish that the hearing proceeded or what sentence was imposed.

Open: Find the actual sentencing report or judgment.

ODT: initial court report · Court News: sentencing calendar

Three people appeared in Rangiora Court after the 15 July discovery. Two men were remanded in custody and a woman on bail on equipment/materials and possession allegations. Police, ODT and The Press reports describe the same discovery and are not three separate labs.

Open: Identities and final outcomes unlocated.

Wayback: shirley-police · Wayback: extra-169655 · Wayback: press-5301706

Three people were initially charged. All laboratory-related drug charges against Anthony James Brooking were withdrawn on 3 November 2011; the newspaper and Court News both record the withdrawal. Peter John Gason separately received three years eleven months on 19 December 2012 after guilty pleas. Jacqueline Brown’s final outcome is not established. Brooking must not be labelled convicted in this case.

Open: Find Jacqueline Brown’s outcome and any later appeals; distinguish parole consequences from guilt in this prosecution.

Police oppose bail for three after drugs bust · Meth-lab prosecution suddenly dropped · Wayback: press-5903089 · Wayback: extra-8099585

The Press reported a discovery the previous Friday and equipment/materials charges against James Lines and Marsha Witehira. The article records remands, not convictions. The inferred 17 February discovery date follows the report’s explicit “last Friday” wording.

Open: Final court outcomes for both defendants not found.

Wayback: press-6476152

A 7 July 2012 Press feature reports a boxed manufacturing kit found at an Opawa house on the preceding Tuesday, with three children believed to live there. It does not identify defendants. Similar timing and family details in the Hillsborough case make a connection possible, but this record does not merge them without evidence. This entry must not be added to a definitive unique-laboratory total.

Open: Resolve whether this is the same incident as Hillsborough.

Stuff: Canterbury review · National Library: The Press, 7 July 2012, A11

The complete 26 July 2013 archived Press report says the Crown declined to proceed with three equipment charges against Amy Louise Pope and she was discharged. Mark James van Duinen’s separate equipment and manufacture allegations were still set for trial. The report is not a conviction of either person and does not establish van Duinen’s eventual outcome.

Open: Find the later trial outcome and resolve the possible Opawa overlap.

Wayback: press-8968765

Police reported finding three men allegedly manufacturing methamphetamine in a shed. The 23 August report records equipment/materials charges and remands. No later verdict was established.

Open: Names and final outcomes unlocated.

Wayback: extra-7535649

Officers training in a vacant red-zone house found glassware and initially called laboratory specialists. Police subsequently confirmed that no chemicals or evidence of a laboratory operation were found. The case is retained to correct the initial suspicion and excluded from confirmed laboratory counts.

Open:

Wayback: press-8414377 · Police release reproduced by Scoop

Court News reports a mother’s guilty plea and later a two-year-nine-month sentence, alongside a man’s seven-year-four-month sentence with a minimum non-parole period. The reports suppress identities to protect children. This case is not merged with the later McGregors Road prosecution.

Open: Exact discovery date and later appeal history unlocated.

Mother admits endangering children who lived in meth lab house · Children exposed to meth-lab drugs

Jeffery William Wyatt received four years one month for offences including an import conspiracy, manufacture equipment and firearms. This is a separate prosecution from Tilford Street. The report is relevant to manufacturing history but does not by itself prove another operating laboratory.

Open: Identify the underlying premises and avoid counting equipment offences as an additional operating lab.

Meth raids lead to long jail term

Police discovered the laboratory on 3 December 2015. Later Court News reports trace charges, not-guilty pleas and the eventual sentencing: Gary Mark De Latour received three years six months, and Jasmine Aroha Karetai eleven months’ home detention on their respective proven offences. Early child-endangerment allegations must not all be treated as proven merely because other convictions followed.

Open: Complete a charge-by-charge final disposition from the trial or judgment.

Wayback: linwood-2015-police · Stuff: initial appearance · Couple sentenced for meth lab at house

Police attended a house and a resident was decontaminated as a precaution. Further testing was required to establish whether manufacture had occurred; no arrests had been made. A retrieved Wayback page is only a generic Stuff shell and is not counted as a recovered article.

Open: Final laboratory assessment not found.

Stuff: precautionary response

Reporting after Phillip Musson’s death described chemicals and equipment suspected of being a methamphetamine laboratory. Police publicly declined further comment, while the property owner said police had described a non-operating lab. The source does not establish a methamphetamine conviction or that the death resulted from a laboratory accident. His earlier steroid convictions are a different matter. Police separately named him as Phillip James Musson and said his death on 18 April 2020 was not suspicious; that statement does not confirm a laboratory.

Open: Final laboratory assessment unlocated.

Stuff: possible laboratory investigation · NZ Police name release, 22 April 2020

The National Library description of The Press, 2 February 2021, page 6, records a suspected lab in a vehicle boot during a motel investigation. It describes firearms/ammunition charges against Pita William Hapurona Wilson. Those charges do not establish manufacture or ownership of the suspected lab. This entry is based on the catalogue description, not a recovered full article. A later 2023 report concerns a separate possession-for-supply sentence; it does not resolve the 2021 laboratory allegation.

Open: Recover the article and later lab assessment; avoid inferring a manufacturing conviction.

National Library: Former rugby rep caught after manhunt · ODT / Southland Express: 2023 separate sentencing report

The report describes two arrests after police found what they believed to be a laboratory and firearms. It records supply-related charges against one defendant. The publication timestamp corresponds to 26 October New Zealand time. No manufacture verdict or final outcome was established.

Open: Final laboratory assessment and defendant outcomes not found.

ODT: two arrested

Police reported a clandestine drug laboratory and an arrest on import/export-drug and cannabis-cultivation allegations. The source does not identify the laboratory as a methamphetamine lab. Retained as a related investigation, excluded from confirmed meth-lab counts.

Open: Determine the laboratory type and court outcome.

Wayback: redwood-2024

Chris Lynch Media quoted police saying a Kāinga Ora property searched on 21 February had been used to manufacture methamphetamine. A man was arrested on dealing charges. The saved report establishes what police said at that stage, not a later conviction.

Open: Final court outcome and any later official assessment not located.

Wayback: brighton-2025