A drug dealer who bought P from a multimillion-dollar crime syndicate run from SkyCity Casino was hired as a policeman two months later.
Chee Kent Tan was on full pay as a constable for three years until he was found guilty of two methamphetamine supply charges in May, after detectives cracked a drug ring that laundered at least $11 million through the Auckland casino.
Tan was not a police officer when he was caught in bugged conversations buying 420g of P - with a street value of up to $420,000 - in August 2006 during Operation Ice Age.
Detectives were unable to identify his voice at the time, but the next month he applied for a job as a police officer.
He passed a urine drug test and was inducted as a probationary constable in October 2006. Six months later, Tan was arrested and charged over the two purchases in August 2006.
He had been suspended on full pay for three years until he was convicted this year.
Tan was sentenced at the High Court at Auckland this week to seven and a-half years in prison, along with three others who were handed long stints behind bars.
Barrister Graeme Newell said his client was not making money as a member of the organised crime syndicate, but rather a P smoker who began dealing to pay for his expensive habit.
Mr Newell said becoming a police officer "was the first step on the road to Damascus" for Mr Tan, who wanted to end his P habit and had been clean ever since.
Justice Patrick Keane took his contrition and remorse as a mitigating factor when sentencing Tan, as well as the hardship he would suffer as a police officer inside prison.
The fact that Tan was a police officer was a closely guarded secret. Even Justice Keane, who was also the trial judge, was unaware until this week.
Police spokeswoman Ana-Mari Gates-Bowey confirmed that Chee Kent Tan was employed as an authorised officer working at Counties Manukau headquarters.
An authorised officer has temporary sworn powers to perform duties.
She said there was no evidence to suggest that Tan was leaking sensitive information back to his criminal associates.
"Of course, police are very concerned about anyone who is employed by them and who associates with criminals."
But police sources were sceptical about Tan buying 15 ounces of P just one month before applying to become a police officer.
"Asian organised crime is well known for trying to infiltrate all levels of Government. The gangs have been talking about getting `clean skins' [people without criminal convictions] into the police for years to hold the back door open," one senior detective said.
However, Justice Keane believed Tan was a drug dealer because of his drug habit, rather than the cynical financial motive of the "mastermind" Tac Kin Voong.
Voong was sentenced to 18 years in prison by Justice Keane, while his right-hand man, Yihia Luo, received a 15-year jail term.
Middle-man Mun Kit Chow pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years, while drug runner Tsai Kuo Liang received a jail term of five and a-half years.
Voong came to New Zealand in 1993 as a refugee and was an unemployed painter while he had a turnover of $11 million at the casino in just six months.
