Spanish for “silver or lead”, the phrase was made famous by the infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar, who would offer government officials and law enforcement the choice of taking a bribe (silver) or a murder contract (lead).
It can now be revealed that “Plata o Plomo” is Ulakai Fakaosilea.
At the time of organising the 199kg meth shipment from Dubai in 2023, Fakaosilea was already in prison for similar criminal offending.
He was behind bars after being caught in the now infamous importation of 501kg of meth off the coast of Northland’s 90 Mile Beach in 2016, the largest drug bust in New Zealand history at the time.
Fakaosilea had only been in the country for a few days.
He had been deported from Australia as a so-called “501”, in reference to the section of the immigration law that allows for visas to be cancelled on character grounds.
Just days after landing in Auckland, Fakaosilea drove two co-defendants to Kaitāia to take part in the smuggling operation.
He was also part of the team who helped unload the half-tonne of meth from the boat after it beached in the early hours of the morning.
About 50kg was buried in the sand dunes, while the rest was shifted into a campervan.
Despite the crucial mistake of trying to bring the meth ashore in the surf of a west coast beach, as well as some bad luck, the record-breaking haul was stopped only by the suspicions of Far North locals and the quick thinking of a young cop.
In 2018, Fakaosilea pleaded guilty to importing methamphetamine and participating in an organised criminal group.
“If this quantity of methamphetamine had been distributed it would have flooded the market,” Justice Simon Moore said at Fakaosilea’s sentencing hearing.
“The human cost and the misery and the havoc such massive quantities would have wrought in our communities throughout our land does not bear thinking about … when you agreed to get involved in this business you knew all those things. But your greed and self-interest led you to forge on regardless.”
The abandoned boat on 90 Mile Beach that led to the record-breaking 501kg methamphetamine haul in 2016. Ulakai Fakaosilea helped shift the drugs from the boat to a campervan.
The 501kg of methamphetamine discovered in Operation Frontia in 2016 was the biggest drug bust in New Zealand history at the time.
Just 28 at the time, Fakaosilea was sentenced to 22 years and nine months in prison.
He was ordered to spend nearly nine years behind bars before he could seek early release on parole.
The accidental discovery of 501kg of meth – shattering the previous record of 96kg – was considered momentous at the time by veteran drug squad detectives.
Significantly, it was also the first time that the full impact of the influence of the Australia “501s” on the New Zealand criminal world was felt.
Among those deported was a small but influential group who established a chapter of the Comancheros, an Australian motorcycle club.
With genuine connections to global organised crime figures, the Comancheros’ arrival radically changed the criminal landscape in New Zealand.
One of the founding members of the New Zealand chapter was Seiana Fakaosilea, the younger brother of Ulakai, who was subsequently convicted of serious drug dealing and money laundering offences.
The National Organised Crime Group (NOCG), a specialist division in the police, has relentlessly targeted members of the Comancheros in recent years.
One of these covert investigations, Operation Brewer, gathered crucial evidence from cellphones seized in other investigations.
Downloaded on many of the confiscated devices was an encrypted messaging app called Threema, which is a popular method of communicating in the criminal underworld.
Threema does not require a phone number or email address for registration, which anonymises the user to a degree.
Instead, Threema users identify each other by nickname and effectively create a personal brand.
“This can be important … as over time a certain nickname may garner notoriety, or be a calling card that others remember you by,” according to a police summary of Operation Brewer.
After cracking the encryption, Operation Brewer detectives discovered multiple Threema conversations involving someone nicknamed “Plata o Plomo”.
It was apparent from the intercepted Threema conversations, police said, that “Plata o Plomo” was a significant organised crime figure in New Zealand and “revered in the criminal underworld”.
Around 199kg of methamphetamine was concealed inside these wheat thresher machines imported from Dubai in 2023. Operation Brewer was able to prove that Ulakai Fakaosilea arranged the shipment from prison. Photo / NZ Police
The mysterious figure was Ulakai Fakaosilea.
Despite being behind bars in Rimutaka prison, he was able to organise the 199kg meth shipment, hidden ingeniously inside four wheat thresher machines from Dubai, with a smuggled cellphone.
Fakaosilea pleaded guilty to importing a Class-A drug, other meth-related offending, as well as participating in an organised criminal group.
At his sentencing hearing in March last year, Crown prosecutor Ben Kirkpatrick asked the judge, Justice Mathew Downs, to impose the maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
This was because at the time of Operation Brewer, Fakaosilea was already in prison for the 501kg meth import.
“In terms of both sets of offending, if he wasn’t sentenced to life imprisonment, it’s hard to imagine what case would be appropriate [to do so],” Kirkpatrick told the court.
In response, defence lawyer Tiffany Cooper, KC, urged the judge to impose a long-but-finite sentence of 25 years to be served on top of his current period of incarceration.
This was because her client had taken responsibility for his part in the offending at an early stage, saving the Crown the time and expense of a court trial.
If Fakaosilea was shown some recognition and received a lighter sentence, Cooper said this would show the criminal community that there were tangible benefits to accepting responsibility for their actions.
“What message does it send to other members of the [gang] that you can man up, take responsibility, but you will still face the harshest consequences?” Cooper said.
“We are not talking about a small sentence either [if life was not imposed]. I urge the court to send a message: that if you take responsibility, there is something for you … there is hope.”
But Justice Downs said Fakaosilea’s drug offending was “bespoke” in terms of its seriousness and rejected the plea for leniency to hand down a life sentence.
“Any other focus would send quite the wrong signal, including to prisoners contemplating dealing drugs from prison on behalf of gangs,” Justice Downs said.
“Methamphetamine is a dangerous, addictive drug. It destroys lives. We, the courts, see that on a daily basis. You have repeatedly dealt that drug, in very large quantities, without concern for others.”
The senior Comanchero has since challenged the length of the sentence, although the Court of Appeal is yet to make a ruling.
However, it has not been possible to report Fakaosilea’s involvement in Operation Brewer until now.
This was because he was facing criminal charges in a completely separate prosecution involving the senior members of the Comancheros.
The now 36-year-old was identified in another covert investigation that targeted drug dealing and money laundering committed on behalf of the outlaw motorcycle gang’s hierarchy.
On the eve of his trial due to start in the Auckland District Court this month, Fakaosilea pleaded guilty to participating in an organised criminal group.
He is due to be sentenced in July.
Jared Savage covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006 and has won a dozen journalism awards in that time, including twice being named Reporter of the Year. He is also the author of Gangland, Gangster’s Paradise and Underworld.