{"id":601237,"date":"2026-09-15T17:16:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T17:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/601237\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T17:16:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T17:16:18","slug":"operation-equinox-alleged-drug-kingpin-junior-heart-guilty-of-majority-of-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/601237\/","title":{"rendered":"Operation Equinox: Alleged drug kingpin Junior Heart guilty of majority of charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

However, that was whittled down to the 28 charges the jury were left to decide, most relating to methamphetamine<\/a> and cocaine.<\/p>\n

Heart was found not guilty on five charges of supplying methamphetamine, conspiring to money launder, offering to supply cocaine, conspiring to murder, and conspiring to kidnap.<\/p>\n

The jury found him guilty on 12 charges of supplying meth at Mercer, Bombay, Rangiriri, Hampton Downs, Huntly, Te Awamutu, Hamilton and Tauranga; four charges of supplying cocaine in Hamilton and Tauranga; and conspiring to supply P in Hamilton.<\/p>\n

The offence dates range from December 3, 2019, to May 28, 2021.<\/p>\n

Heart had earlier pleaded guilty to 77 charges.<\/p>\n

He was convicted by Justice Brett Tantrum and remanded in custody for sentencing next month.<\/p>\n

In her opening, Crown Solicitor Jacinda Hamilton said Heart peddled the drugs with one focus \u2013 money.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was his business. It was how he earned a living and how he was getting rich and growing his power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton said a kilogram of meth was worth $180,000 to $220,000 between October 2019 and June 2021.<\/p>\n

Heart could source meth and cocaine from China and Mexico for US$5000 ($8450) to US$10,000, \u201cmaking it a very profitable business\u201d.<\/p>\n

She claimed Heart, who was \u201cexacting and ruthless\u201d, was selling meth in kilograms and ounces to others below him to make their own profit.<\/p>\n

Revealing details of the wounding charge, Heart is alleged to have told another man that he was \u201cthinking about chopping [the man\u2019s] finger off tomorrow, lol\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeed butcher knife and hammer,\u201d he reportedly said. The other man allegedly replied: \u201cSend him the gangster message.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamilton claimed that at the time of Heart\u2019s arrest in June 2021, he was waiting on a 270kg shipment of meth from overseas, after telling his contact he would \u201ctake as much as [he] could possibly offer\u201d.<\/p>\n

As for cocaine, the amounts sold \u201cpaled in comparison\u201d to meth, but he was allegedly supplying it in May and June 2020, after the first Covid-19 lockdown.<\/p>\n

\"JuniorJunior Heart, pictured in the dock of the High Court at Hamilton, was today found not guilty of nine of the 28 charges he was defending. Photo \/ Belinda Feek<\/p>\n

At one point cocaine was \u201cthe champagne of drugs\u201d but when supplies increased, prices dropped and it was soon on par with meth.<\/p>\n

As for MDMA, also known as ecstasy, about 5000 pills could be pressed from 1kg of the drug.<\/p>\n

She claimed Heart sourced 2kg of MDMA between March 2020 and June 2021.<\/p>\n

Heart had already pleaded guilty to charges relating to the distribution of MDMA.<\/p>\n

Hamilton said Heart\u2019s business ran like a \u201cwell-oiled machine\u201d and \u201che set the prices\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018Who let the dogs out?\u2019<\/p>\n

In his closing address to the jury on Friday, Wimsett said they \u201cmay have a natural dislike for Junior Heart given all the things he\u2019s admitted doing and that he is accused of doing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that is understandable. You\u2019re not immune to those natural feelings you may have.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told them they might have trepidation or nervousness in trying to decide all the charges, but must put those feelings to one side in deciding the verdicts.<\/p>\n

He then went through the charges his client was fighting, and bunched them up according to \u201cchapters, or signposts\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that if I was writing a book about this case these might be the chapter heads,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The chapter names included a successful, \u201cGym Juice and cash\u201d, relating to the alleged supply of meth in Hamilton in November 2019. <\/p>\n

However, Wimsett said Gym Juice was slang for steroids, and the communications were between him and a co-defendant comparing their own lines of the product.<\/p>\n

He had mixed success with a chapter named, \u201cWho let the dogs out?\u201d, which related to the supply of meth around South Auckland and Waikato between December 3 and December 24, 2019.<\/p>\n

He dubbed a conspiring to money launder charge, which his client successfully defended, as \u201cA gift without conditions\u201d, and a conspiring to supply meth charge, that he was not as successful with, \u201cWhat\u2019s yours is yours and what\u2019s mine is mine\u201d.<\/p>\n

Two other successful chapter names, relating to offering to supply cocaine and meth, were \u201cNoah sure yet brother, what\u2019s the usual\u201d, and \u201cWhat\u2019s Heart got to do with it?\u201d.<\/p>\n

The chapter of the chopping-finger charge was called, \u201cSee how he goes\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose themes are all based on what I say are important points to note regarding each of those charges or sets of charges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wimsett told the jury not all the things discussed were followed through with, and \u201cthings that were planned sometimes failed\u201d.<\/p>\n

The jury heard of a planned import operation but no evidence it was completed, and an associate giving his client money back because a deal didn\u2019t go through.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m asking you to watch yourselves or each other and don\u2019t assume that because the Crown said something happened, or there was talk that something happened, that it did.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m asking you to look for evidential confirmation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, that was whittled down to the 28 charges the jury were left to decide, most relating to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1117,1554,1873,3401,1757,34557,1874,3368,2862,8482,35195,26588,12517,156314,14575,111,139,69,1118,17286,284384,213],"class_list":["post-601237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-accused","tag-alleged","tag-charges","tag-drug","tag-drugs","tag-equinox","tag-found","tag-guilty","tag-heart","tag-huge","tag-importing","tag-junior","tag-jury","tag-kingpin","tag-majority","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-operation","tag-quantities","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}