DRUG KINGPIN DIES IN THAI PRISON
Operation Ark party pill pioneer found dead after arrest in immigration sweep. Jared Savage reports
One of the pioneers of “party pills” in New Zealand — who went on to sit at the top of a $50 million designer drug empire — has died in a Thai jail. Lee Vincent, also known as Kemp Ashby, made a fortune by pushing the boundaries of science and law until a covert police investigation targeted the drugs sold by his New Zealandbased company London Underground.
While his friend and business partner Chris Chase was eventually sentenced to 12½ years in prison after losing a Supreme Court battle, Vincent, who was living in Thailand, remained free.
Police seized some of Vincent’s assets — with evidence he made $5m in just 18 months — but were unable to extradite him to face criminal charges. But seven years after Chase was first arrested in Operation Ark, Vincent was on the verge of being deported after being swept up in a Thai immigration crackdown on overstayers.
Vincent was arrested late last year but died while in custody.
His death was not thought to be suspicious or self-inflicted, according to a senior detective preparing to prosecute Vincent on his return.
“We’re aware he had not been in good health in recent years,” said Detective Sergeant Bruce Howard.
According to a Facebook post dated June 2018, Vincent said he had been “pretty unwell” over the past two years.
He said he had 15 operations and spent six months in hospital after nearly dying from gangrene.
Amputation was avoided by “massive” antibiotic medications but Vincent said the treatment “ravaged” his immune system, leaving him susceptible to bacterial infections.
A spokesman said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was aware of the death and confirmed the embassy in Bangkok gave consular assistance to a family member.
MFAT said any questions about a death in Thailand should be directed to the Royal Thai Police.
A Royal Thai Police spokesman said any questions about the death of a New Zealand citizen should be directed to MFAT or Vincent’s family.
Vincent’s mother Diane Ashby, who was living with him in Thailand, and Vincent’s wife did not respond to messages from the Weekend Herald.
His death brings a long running saga to a sad end.
Vincent and Chase were among the first people in New Zealand to sell BZP “legal highs”.
When BZP was banned in 2008, their company London Underground switched to what they thought was a new chemical compound called mephedrone, or 4-MMC.
The pills were marketed and sold under the radar to compete with Ecstasy, a Class-B drug, in the Auckland dance and nightclub scene.
Vincent moved to Thailand where he sourced the supposed mephedrone from China and shipped it to New Zealand where the powder was pressed into pills — sold for $30 to $40 each.
Chase claimed he thought the pills were legal as mephedrone was not specifically banned under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
However, covert police investigation Operation Ark targeted London Underground and Chase was among 23 people arrested in November 2011.
A second investigation, Operation Greenstone, laid more charges against Chase and others as they tried to sustain their business while on bail.
The police alleged the London Underground tablets were not legal and in fact were analogues, or “substantially similar” in molecular structure, to illegal drugs.
This was part of a worldwide phenomenon where chemists were tweaking the chemicals to skirt the boundaries of the law, the police alleged.
Testing also revealed the powder London Underground thought was mephedrone, or 4-MMC, was in fact methedrone, or 4-MEC.
Nearly 255kg of powder was imported over 18 months; enough to make almost 1.3 million tablets.
The profits were enormous, with each pill costing around $1 to make.
London Underground sold them, at wholesale, for $17 to $23 a pill.
Over the course of the 18-month police investigation, about $11m in cash had been stored in the Takapuna home of his mother Diane.
London Underground staff took cardboard cartons — filled with bundles of $20, $50 and $100 notes — which were stacked behind a chair in her lounge. Every so often, “couriers” would arrive to collect the boxes and take the cash to Hong Kong where it was banked into accounts controlled by Vincent.
Those companies then “loaned” millions of dollars back to a company in New Zealand controlled by Chase.
At his High Court trial in 2015, which ran for 18 weeks, Chase maintained his innocence and pointed to legal advice he received.
But the jury decided both 4-MMC and 4-MEC were “substantially similar” to methcathinone, a Class-B drug, which made them analogues.
Analogues are considered Class-C drugs and in sentencing Chase to 10 years in prison, Justice Peter Woodhouse said the street value of pills sold was nearly $50m.
“This was the largest Class-C drug importation and dealing operation that has come before the New Zealand courts,” said Justice Woodhouse, “and the largest by a very long way.”