Full details revealed on Aiyaz Umarji Musa and his involvement in the shipment of drugs to manufacture meth

Full details have now been revealed through New Zealand court documents regarding Fijian national, Aiyaz Mohammed Umarji Musa and his involvement in the shipment of drugs to manufacture methamphetamine.

According to the summary of facts, judgement and sentencing documents now obtained by fijivillage News after an application to the Auckland District Court, Umarji and a co-defendent organised the importation of pseudoephedrine into New Zealand by way of Actifed pills.

The combined amount of Actived pills imported into New Zealand from all three consignments was 678,000. With each pill containing 60mg of pseudoephedrine the total amount of pseudoephedrine imported was 40.68 kilograms.

The total approximate value of the pseudoephedrine imported is NZ$6 million.

Pseudoephedrine is a Class B controlled drug and is the main ingredient used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.

According to the documents, Umarji is the Managing Director of several pharmacies in Fiji and across the Pacific region under the 'Hyperchem' group of pharmacies including 'Hyperchem Pharmacy' in Lautoka.

The summary of facts state that Umarji's role in these companies is, amongst other roles, the importation and exportation of pharmaceuticals into and out of Fiji from all over the world. At all times these entities had lawful authority to import products containing pseudoephedrine into Fiji and, prior to 2021, the same could be sold over the counter in Fiji without a prescription.

Umarji is also the sole shareholder of 'Bio Pharma Limited' and a signatory on the account. His co-defendant in this matter Firdos Eruch Dalal, is the sole director of this company and also a signatory on this account.

This company was set up for the sole purpose of transferring money between syndicate members with respect to the importation and distribution of illicit drugs.

Dalal's role within this syndicate was due to his employment at a freight forwarding company in Auckland to which he had access to a Custom Controlled Area (CCA) connected to this company.

On 23rd October 2017, Auckland Police were called to Dalal's home address and as a result located in excess of 4,000 boxes of Actifed pills and NZ$726,190 in cash.

Dalal advised Police that he was involved in an illegal drug operation and named Umarji as the syndicate leader.

On 27th March 2019, Dalal was convicted and charged with 'Imports a Class B controlled drug' x 3, 'Possesses for Supply a Class B controlled drug' x 2, and 'Supply's a Class B controlled drug'. All these charges relate to the same three importations Umarji was involved in.

According to Charge 1 of importation of pseudoephedrine, Umarji and Dalal arranged for a consignment of 3,600 packets of Actifed medicine to be shipped from Turkey to Fiji via New Zealand. The total amount of pills entering New Zealand was 108,000.

The consignment was stored in the Customs Controlled Area connected to Dalal's freight forwarding company. It arrived on 14th January 2017 and left the CCA on 26th January 2017.

Sometime during this period, the boxes of Actifed pills were removed and replaced with boxes of Augmentin, an antibiotic medicine. This was carried out by Dalal and under the direction of Umarji.

The summary of facts says Umarji also sent Dalal an altered packing invoice via email so Dalal could replace the original consignment packing invoice to show a new consignment description of 450 packets of Augmentin. The final destination for the medicine was changed from Fiji to the Solomon Islands.

Umarji then directed Dalal as to how and where to deliver the pills and how much money to receive.

Dalal was not keeping records of the transactions at this time but it is estimated the 108,000 pills were sold for approximately NZ$198,000.

According to charge 2 against Umarji, in August 2017, Umarji and Dalal arranged for an order of Actifed to be shipped from Fiji to the Solomon Islands. Again, the shipment was to travel via New Zealand and be held under bond in storage at a Customs Controlled Area.

On 29th August 2017, the pills arrived in New Zealand. The shipment contained 12,000 boxes totalling 360,000 pills.

Sometime between 29th August and 31st August 2017, six cartons of Actifed were removed from the Customs Controlled Area in Auckland. This was carried out by Dalal.

The court documents say Dalal took six "replacement" cartons, containing packets of Antifungal medicine and tropical cream.

It says again Umarji sent Dalal an altered packing invoice via email so Dalal could replace the original consignment packing invoice. He then took the antifungal medicine to another nearby Customs Controlled Area and continued the shipment to the Solomon Islands with the antifungal medicine.

The summary of facts presented in the Auckland Court says between 29th August and 13th September 2017, and at Umarji's direction, Dalal organised the sale and supply of Actifed pills to an associate. In total, Dalal received NZ$603,750 in cash for the sale of the 360,000 pills.

For the third charge against Umarji, in October 2017, the defendants organised the shipment of 7,000 packets of Actifed that contained 210,000 pills for a customer to be shipped from Turkey to Fiji via New Zealand.

On 19th October 2017, the Actifed arrived in New Zealand and while in transit was stored under bond in a Customs Controlled Area.

The summary says at about 10am on 20th October 2017, Dalal entered the warehouse and requested the nine cartons of Actifed from a warehouse worker and advised them to place the boxes into a company vehicle which was captured on CCTV.

Dalal drove the company vehicle containing the nine boxes of Actifed to his home address, and placed the boxes into his garage.

Dalal then made his way to a pharmaceutical company in Auckland and collected nine boxes of antifungal cream medicine.

The court documents say Umarji again sent Dalal an altered packing invoice via email so Dalal could replace the original consignment packing invoice to show a new commercial invoice which described the antifungal medicine and took the invoice and antifungal medicine to another Customs Controlled Area. He arranged for the consignment to continue to be shipped to the Solomon Islands.

Over the next couple of days, Dalal removed the blister packets of Actifed from their boxes and organised the pills into bundles of 2,000 or 2,500 sheets.

On the 21st and 22nd October, Dalal met with an associate and supplied him with 70,000 pills.

In exchange he received NZ$122,500 cash. Dalal stored this money at his home address along with the NZ$603,750 he received from the sale of the second consignment of Actifed.

At about 8pm on Monday 23rd October 2017, Dalal was at his home address of 58 Glover Road, St Helier's, Auckland.

Auckland Police attended the address in relation to reports that there was a large quantity of money being kept there.

When asked, Dalal showed Police the NZ$726,190 cash and led Police to the garage of the address where they located six boxes.

Five of these boxes were full of small boxes each containing 30 Actifed tablets. The sixth box was open and inside it was a black plastic rubbish bag filled with opened Actifed boxes.

The number of pills located at the address totalled 119,670.

Both Umarji and Dalal have been convicted of the charges.

Fijian national, Aiyaz Musa Umarji has been sentenced to four years and will serve his term of imprisonment in New Zealand.

You can also check out our website, fijivillage for our in-depth coverage regarding this major drug trial.

Stay with us as we will have more on this tomorrow.