One of New Zealand’s most wanted fugitives has been arrested in Spain and could now be extradited here to face allegations he orchestrated one of the country’s largest drug shipments.

Around 500kg of methamphetamine was smuggled into the Bay of Plenty in April 2019 when a ship from Whakatāne sailed nearly 200km offshore to meet the mothership and retrieve the drugs.

The plot unfolded a few months later when police discovered two different caches of drugs – 193kg in Auckland and 210kg in Hamilton – and realized the individual 1kg packages were packaged identically.

Five men have been charged with possession of methamphetamine for supply in connection with the two massive hideouts.

But National Organized Crime Group detectives continued to investigate how the drugs were imported and traced the separate caches back to the single 500kg shipment to Whakatāne.

Anthony Charles Netzler, a ninjutsu master and former bodyguard to various celebrities, pleaded guilty to importing a Class A drug and was sentenced in December to 15 years and seven months in prison.

Netzler, 53, flew to Bangkok in December 2018 to meet with senior members of a UK criminal syndicate.

A plan was hatched, and in April 2019, Netzler traveled by boat to retrieve the 500 kg of methamphetamine from a catamaran at a rendezvous point in the middle of the sea.

At the time, the import was the second largest in New Zealand history behind the 501kg of methamphetamine smuggled by boat on Ninety Mile Beach in 2016.

However, the Weekend Herald can reveal that the police investigation, Operation Essex, did not just end with the prison sentences for those arrested in New Zealand.

In a rare move, police believe they have gathered enough evidence to prosecute an Irish citizen living in Europe as the alleged crime boss who orchestrated the 500kg drug shipment recovered by Netzler.

Mark Byrne, 50, was charged in Tauranga District Court last November with importing a Class A drug, possession for the purpose of supplying and participating in an organized criminal group.

A judge issued a warrant for Byrne’s arrest and formed the basis of an alert to Interpol, the global police force network.

His location was unknown to police, according to court documents.

But a few months later, Byrne was arrested by Spanish police in January while on vacation at a Sierra Nevada ski resort.

“We were truly blown away by the initiative and resources Spanish police deployed to find Byrne,” said Detective Inspector Paul Newman of the National Organized Crime Group.

A Spanish court will now determine whether Byrne will be extradited to New Zealand to face drug and organized crime charges.

Newman said the decision to seek the extradition of an alleged offender was not taken lightly, but the complicated legal process in cases such as Operation Essex would send a strong signal to organized crime figures abroad.

“Transnational crime groups view New Zealand as a lucrative market and attempt to flood our country with drugs that really attack the hearts of our communities and whānau,” Newman said.

“These types of arrests send a clear message that the world is getting smaller, that global law enforcement is better connected and working together to track down and detain these [alleged] offenders must be held to account.”

If Byrne’s extradition is granted, the return of an overseas-based defendant who allegedly sent such a large amount of drugs to New Zealand would be a rare achievement.

In recent years, New Zealand has forged closer relationships with law enforcement around the world to more effectively combat the cross-border nature of organized crime.

While some suspected drug traffickers have been extradited for trial, others like Duax Ngakuru – the kingpin of the Comancheros living in Turkey – so far remain off the hook.

New Zealand is a small drug market, but one of the most lucrative in the world.

A kilo of methamphetamine, which is only worth a few thousand dollars in Southeast Asia or Mexico, can cost between 100,000 and 180,000 dollars here.

These profits caught the attention of global organized crime groups and led to a dramatic change in New Zealand’s criminal landscape.

For many years, a kilo of methamphetamine was considered a major drug seizure, and the record 95 kg discovered during Operation Major in 2006 was considered an outlier.

But since 2015, New Zealand Police and Customs have noticed an increase in the size of methamphetamine shipments, and increasingly more cocaine, to the point that 100kg is now almost commonplace.

Operation Essex is one of the recent police investigations where the true extent of organized crime in New Zealand can be revealed.

The investigation began with a tip from Queensland Police in July 2019, according to court documents.

A 766kg stash of MDMA, a class B drug better known as ecstasy, had been found at a property in Brisbane.

A British citizen arrested at the address had been staying in an Auckland flat just 10 days previously – information Queensland police have provided to their New Zealand counterparts.

Detectives executed a search warrant at the Auckland flat and found 193kg of methamphetamine in boxes stacked inside the wardrobe.

At that time, it was the third highest amount of methamphetamine ever found in the country.

Two British citizens, Neil John Wilkinson and James Edward Woodley, were both convicted of possession of methamphetamine for supply purposes.

That might have been the end of the case, but a few months later police found another 210kg of methamphetamine in Hamilton. The drugs had been packaged identically to the 193kg found in Auckland.

Two men who flew in from Australia have been charged with possession of methamphetamine for the purpose of supply. Both men have pleaded not guilty and have not yet been tried.

The Essex operation, led by Detective Sergeant Mike Beal, traced drug caches from Auckland and Hamilton to Netzler, who lived in Mt Maunganui.

Netzler had recently returned to New Zealand, having lived in Japan for most of his adult life.

He was a minor celebrity in his adopted country as a martial arts master who had won national championships and appeared on popular television shows as a competitor.

Netzler traveled the world as a professional bodyguard for the rich and famous, but returned to New Zealand after the devastating tsunami in Japan in 2011 destroyed his family’s home.

He established a ninjutsu dojo at Mt Maunganui and continued to work in security, with a stint protecting AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd.

But Netzler also maintained ties to a serious international criminal syndicate that used him as a ‘trusted broker’ to make arrangements in New Zealand for the importation of 500kg, according to judge Melanie Harland who sentenced him .

“A spectacular disgrace,” said the judge.