STORY SO FAR

In November last year police discovered seven methamphetamine labs in Northland’s isolated Whangape. It was, police said, part of a large operation spanning much of the North Island.

Most locals knew about the crime, one neighbour said, but did not speak about it. So accusations were rife when three residents were arrested in the raid on charges of money laundering, manufacture of methamphetamine and participating in an organised criminal group.

When Colin Murray and his wife, Betty Anne Lloyd, appeared in court in early December, there were questions. Was it really a ‘‘routine traffic stop’’ when they stopped Colin’s brother Frank before the search and found him towing all the components required for a methamphetamine laboratory?

According to some, the only way police could have known was if someone in the community had told them.

Outside the courthouse in December, an altercation broke out and fingers were pointed. A 19-yearold was forced to flee to the nearby police station only 20 metres away. Before the New Year, his family put the teenager on a plane to Australia. If something happened to him, his uncle Cliff Parker said, there was no telling what might come to pass.

Then in mid-December, six baches, including one belonging to Parker and his family, and another belonging to the family of Mana MP Hone Harawira, were burned to the ground. Tenuous loyalties in a previously tight-knit town were unravelling.