To a passive observer, businessman Shuchen “Ace” Liu would have appeared five years ago to have reached the upper echelons of success. The construction company boss owned multi-million dollar homes in neighbouring affluent Auckland suburbs St Heliers and Kohimarama and drove around town in a $365,000 Ferrari 488 GTB - until he traded it in for a $630,000 Ferrari 488 Pista.

But the hidden engine of his glitzy lifestyle was an illegal syndicate focused on the importation, manufacture and widespread distribution of methamphetamine and MDMA throughout New Zealand, it can now be revealed.

Liu stood in the dock in Auckland District Court today as he admitted to a raft of charges and accepted the truthfulness of court documents describing him as the head of that drug syndicate. His wife, Xiuxiu Hao, stood beside him - pleading guilty to a single representative charge of money laundering.

The Police National Organised Crime Group began investigating Liu in 2020, as the New Zealand drug market was inundated with the popular but dangerous “Pink Porsche” ecstasy pills.

The investigation included intercepted communications between him and underlings and a covert CCTV camera outside a St Johns warehouse that had been leased by Liu and converted into a clandestine factory for the large-scale production of MDMA and methamphetamine.

Liu and others were seen carrying equipment and material consistent with methamphetamine manufacturing, such as acetone and caustic soda, as they walked into and out of the facility. The factory at one point contained two imported pill presses for creating his signature Pink Porsche tablets, created from MDMA he had sourced in powder and crystal form.

“Once pressed Liu would package the pills into various commercial sized dealing amounts/weights with a minimum of 1000 pills at a time and arrange to supply them via encrypted... applications such as Wickr,” the agreed summary of facts for the case states.

Investigators flagged numerous conversations in the days leading up to Liu’s October 2020 arrest in which he appeared to be openly discussing large drug deals.

“Hi bro can I come pick up 1000 pinks,” one person asked Liu before amending his request to “1200″ on October 23.

Drug safety website https://knowyourstuff.nz catologued Shuchen Liu's "Pink Porsche" ecstasy pills in 2019 and 2020.

Days later, Liu, who used the handle “popkakaka”, complimented an alleged meth cook on his “beautiful shards” and instructed him”: “also please see if anyone want to buy the E we got lol... I mean the bad one... that still 66k lol.”

In other messages, he discussed purchasing MDMA for prices ranging from $45,000 to $50,000 per kilo. He generally sold the methamphetamine, he later admitted, for about $5500 per ounce.

During a raid of Liu’s various properties at the termination of the months-long undercover investigation, police found a backpack at his St Heliers address containing nearly 1kg of meth, 30 grams of MDMA in powder form, a 9mm pistol and $208,000 in cash. They also found MDMA purity testing kits and a blender containing traces of pink dye.

At his Kohimarama home, police found 14,400 Pink Porsche pills, about 1kg of MDMA in powder form and 62kg of methyl alpha-acetylphenylacetate - a substance, more commonly known as MAPA, that can be converted into methamphetamine.

Liu pleaded guilty today to representative charges of manufacturing methamphetamine, supplying methamphetamine, possessing methamphetamine for supply and importing methamphetamine - similar but separate crimes that each carry maximum sentences of life imprisonment. He also pleaded guilty to possessing MDMA for supply, supplying MDMA and possessing ephedrine for supply, all of which are punishable by up to 14 years’ imprisonment, as well as charges of unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition, possession of a precursor substance and money laundering.

Businessman Shuchen Liu's $630,000 Ferrari 488 Pista was seized by police following a months-long investigation in October 2020. Photo / Supplied

Police said the money laundering, committed alongside his wife, included the purchases of the two Ferraris and an attempt to buy a Ford F150 Shelby Super Snake ute that was thwarted by his arrest. Police uncovered WeChat messages at the time of the second Ferrari purchase in which Liu asked an unknown person to help pay for the car out of the person’s bank account in exchange for cash.

“I only pay taxes for 20 hours a week,” he wrote alongside a chuckle emoji. “I need 45,000 to change a car. I saved too much cash. I have cash. But can’t use it.”

It was a reference, authorities explained in court documents, to “the fact Liu was ‘cash rich’ but needed electronic funds to make his purchase appear legitimate”.

All of the drug charges he pleaded guilty came with specific weights of the substances that were collected by police during the raids. But they also each included caveats that Liu handled “unknown commercial quantities” of each drug from earlier endeavours not catalogued by investigators.

When Liu eventually admitted to police that he was behind the operation, he was asked why.

“He explained that his motivation was to make money,” court documents state.

Liu’s legitimate company, Bullmark Construction Ltd, went into liquidation last month.

Judge June Jelas remanded him to jail to await sentencing in July.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.