Chronology
The timeline
Ordered by where each chapter begins, not by the date of its last judgment. A sentence handed down in 2013 can belong to a case that started in 2010.
01 · The Airport Job
1982—1983 — A medical detailer lands at Christchurch Airport charged with importing LSD and methamphetamine. Six months later a jury clears her on both counts.
02 · Norwich Street
1990 — The archive’s first laboratory. Three men admit attempted manufacture and are remanded for sentence — the record of what followed has not been found.
03 · Diablo
2004—2009 — A manufacture and supply network running Christchurch to Dunedin ends in the High Court. Five convictions, and individual terms that surface years later in fragments.
04 · Tsunami
2007 — One conspiracy charge, seven defendants, two acquittals. An eight-year term is later upheld on appeal.
05 · Granite
2010—2013 — Police announce three clandestine laboratories and a Hornby raid. The cases split: conspiracy acquittals, a conviction entered late, and terms spread across two years.
06 · Larch Place
2011 — One address, three defendants, three different endings: a prison term, a withdrawal, and a charge the public record never resolves.
07 · Maddale
2019—2023 — An Auckland arm, a Christchurch arm and cash moved through Avonside. Three terms are reported, two of them under appeal when the reporting stops.
08 · The 2020 Ring
2019—2020 — A meth ring, four recorded terms, and a sentencing that waits on six months of rehabilitation.
09 · Italian Sky
2023 — Eleven sentences from two linked national supply lines, reported together — from ten months’ home detention to nine years and three months.
10 · Avon
2024—2026 — The largest cluster in this record: equipment charges, guilty pleas, a judge-alone trial and a mixed verdict that acquitted a commander on twenty-five charges.
11 · Whoosh
2024—2026 — A darknet storefront, dozens of confirmed imports and a twelve-year sentence. Two courier terms depend on which report you read.
12 · The Streets
2010—2025 — Bower Avenue, Redwood, Waltham, Hillsborough, Wordsworth Street. Charges and remands — and in most of them the public record stops before a finding.