Among the last defendants charged as part of a major police investigation into a sprawling drug syndicate has pleaded guilty to 10 serious drugs charges and faces a lengthy term in prison.

Maximiliano Javier Luna was the second last remaining holdout who had not either pleaded out or been found guilty by a jury for his involvement in the international drug cartel led by Xavier Valent, aka Harry Whitehead, the former Auckland Grammar boy turned international drug lord.

The last holdout, a man accused of serving as a methamphetamine cook with the syndicate, will stand trial in the Auckland District Court later this year.

Luna was one of a number of people arrested in 2020 when police terminated Operation Mystic, targeting what prosecutors called an “extremely large-scale drug importing and distribution syndicate”.

Valent was arrested at the Italian border on an Interpol warrant and later extradited to New Zealand. He was found guilty of most drugs charges after a marathon trial this year and sentenced earlier this month to life in prison.

Police seized more than a tonne of methamphetamine, MDMA, cocaine and ephedrine worth some $5 million that was smuggled into New Zealand over three years.

Luna appeared in the dock on Friday morning before Justice Neil Campbell after spending the years since his arrest on bail.

Maximiliano Javier Luna appears in the Auckland High Court where he entered guilty pleas to 10 serious drugs charges. Photo / George Block

His wife and other supporters including a Church pastor packed into the public gallery of the small courtroom at the Auckland High Court to hear him plead guilty to 10 charges covering the importation, possession or supply of methamphetamine, cocaine, meth-precursor chemical ephedrine and LSD.

Among the charges he admitted were the processing for supply of 4kg of cocaine which had been imported from Brazil and the supply of MDMA hidden in a Keri juice bottle.

On most charges, Valent, the syndicate’s boss, was named as a co-offender along with other minions in the syndicate.

Luna will be sentenced on August 15 at 9am, where it is expected the Crown will seek a lengthy term of imprisonment in the order of 16 years.

He was bailed after entering his guilty pleas ahead of sentencing.

Luna was brought into the syndicate by Valent’s primary storeman, court documents show.

Xavier Valent, also known as Harry Whitehead, travelled the world while running an international drug syndicate before being caught in Operation Mystic. Photo / Supplied

The storeman was forming his own distribution team within the syndicate and wanted Luna, a close associate, to be part of his team. He was brought into the fold around September 2018.

Initially he acted as a receiver or “catcher” of imported drug consignments smuggled through the post.

By 2019 he was the primary drug runner in the storeman’s team.

The storeman bought him a red Audi to use for his drug running and paid him between $2000 and $5000 a week in cash.

More to come.