When Chinese national Jian Qi Zhao moved to New Zealand on a visitor visa in 2014 - looking to make his fortune despite his soon-to-be status as an overstayer - he didn’t speak any English, didn’t drive and had no legitimate job prospects.

But he did have one very big advantage in his search for success that would soon make him both feared and, by some accounts, extremely wealthy: an America-based contact willing to send him illegal shipments of ephedrine, a precursor used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.

Over the next three years, Zhao - who would come to be better known by the aliases Uncle Six, Brother Six or Captain as he rose in criminal underworld stature - built a formidable local methamphetamine manufacturing empire in Auckland, complete with a series of suburban homes turned clandestine meth labs, an inner circle of Mandarin-speaking henchmen and a customer base consisting primarily of “Westerner” gangs who preferred to purchase in bulk.

Then in July 2017 some disturbing news got back to him which made him second-guess his life choices, the now-imprisoned crime boss, 36, claimed this week as he testified over the course of four days at the ongoing murder trial of a former minion, Michael Gu.

He explained that Ricky Wang - a former businessman turned freelance meth cook who Zhao described as having gotten sloppier and increasingly unpredictable as he developed an addiction for his own supply - was secretly plotting with a rogue gang member to locate and pilfer Zhao’s warehouse in Blockhouse Bay where the syndicate stored its ephedrine stockpile.

“They were going to kidnap me and threaten me to tell the location,” Uncle Six testified of having learned of the alleged betrayal at first through rumour, then directly from a gang member source. “Once they did so they were going to kill me.

“I was quite frightened.”

It was a turning point of sorts, he said. As he saw it, he had two choices: retire prematurely and return to China or retain his rank as syndicate boss and have Wang killed for peace of mind.

He chose the latter.

That dubious decision is what eventually led to Zhao sitting next to a translator this week in the witness box in the High Court at Auckland, playing out a courtroom scene so bizarre it bordered on unheard-of: a high-level mafioso revealing in detail the inner workings of his syndicate and freely admitting to orchestrating a murder, all while turning state’s evidence against an underling rather than joining him in the dock.

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Crime boss Jian Qi Zhao, otherwise known as Uncle Six, appears via audio-visual link in the High Court at Auckland in June 2020. Photo / NZME

Gu, the defendant, was following Uncle Six’s orders on the night he helped tie Wang to a chair inside a Massey clan lab and stabbed him to death with a hunting-syle knife, the crime boss testified.

The defence has acknowledged that Gu served as Uncle Six’s henchman and that he later helped dump Wang’s body in a shallow grave near Tongariro National Park, where it remained for three years until another participant helped police unravel the case.

But Gu was on his honeymoon in Northland when the murder plot was hatched and had nothing to do with the actual killing, his lawyers have said, suggesting that aspects of the crime boss’ testimony were just too incredible to be believed.

Building a syndicate

Uncle Six claimed to have endured a humble start to his criminal career in New Zealand, securing lodging with other recent immigrants at an Auckland homestay upon arrival and finding himself dependent on his “American boss” for setting up shop as an ephedrine wholesaler.

“I don’t know any of the clients. I only do what I was asked to do,” he said. “I don’t have any residency. I’m in New Zealand, no English, I don’t drive a car. So I just asked people to help me.”

But before the wild ride ended four years later with his incarceration, he would allegedly be bragging of having sent $300 million back home to China - although he insisted in the witness box that financial boast would have been hugely exaggerated.

One of the first people Zhao met upon arrival in New Zealand was Gu, then an international university student who was a roommate in the homestay. Gu would drive Zhao places and demur at first when Zhao tried to compensate him financially.

But after a while, Zhao said, he asked if Gu wanted to get involved in his business and the roommate agreed - serving as both a driver and a runaround who would help retrieve the ephedrine parcels.

Zhicheng 'Michael' Gu appears in court in 2019. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Zhao said he met Wang, the man whose death he would later order, about a year after moving to New Zealand. Wang was the only other person who knew the American supplier - a shadowy figure Zhao revealed little about in his testimony and police statements. Wang had wanted to buy ephedrine directly from the overseas contact but had instead been directed to deal with Zhao, he explained.

Wang quickly became entwined with the syndicate, using his business to help launder drug money. But around 2017 he moved into a role as an independent meth cook, manufacturing the drugs at his own clan labs with ephedrine bought from the syndicate, Zhao said.

“Some of it he sold himself, some portion of it he’ll sell to me and some of it would be sold to my clients,” Zhao explained of the sub-contractor-like arrangement.

That same year, Gu began to cook meth as well, serving as an understudy to Wang as he learned the process. As the syndicate continued to expand, others were hired as runarounds and trained to help in the meth-making process.

So how much money did Uncle Six earn if not $300 million? His recollection was fuzzy, and often at odds with documents produced by the defence.

“I didn’t have much money,” he insisted under cross-examination

He started out onselling the raw ephedrine to other cooks, purchasing it for about $80,000 a kilo and earning a profit of roughly $8000 to $10,000, he said. But much of that profit went to paying employees and other expenses, such as rent on properties where the illicit packages were sent, he reckoned.

He later transitioned to manufacturing the meth in-house, a riskier but much more lucrative endeavour in which he said a kilo of the finished product would sell for roughly $150,000 to $200,000.

Zhao would pay his cooks roughly $20,000 per batch, which would have to be watched carefully over a period of about 24 hours otherwise it could explode. When cooked down, a kilo of ephedrine would result in anywhere from 400 to 900g of meth, although a bad cook could see the entire batch evaporate into nothing, he said.

Plot to kill Uncle Six

Uncle Six recalled first getting wind of a rumoured plot to kidnap, rob and kill him via Gordon “Fatty” Yu, a former culinary arts student turned henchman who regularly served as the syndicate’s “salesman” to local gangs due to his strong English.

Zhao said he didn’t initially believe the rumour - people in his circle often said idiotic things while high - but arranged out of due diligence a meeting with Yu’s source, a gang member.

“I asked him how did he know about it,” Zhao recalled. “He said his boss told him. And then he said his boss knew that my warehouse is in Blockhouse Bay, somewhere there. I was quite shocked.”

The location of the warehouse was a closely guarded secret. Zhao was the only person who knew its exact location and only a select few - Wang being one of them - were aware that it was somewhere in Blockhouse Bay, he said.

Syndicate henchman Gaoxiang 'Gordon' Yu was otherwise known as Pagzi or Fatty. Photo / Supplied

He still “didn’t quite believe” that the plot was serious, he added, but he started watching Wang’s demeanour, which he found to be suspicious.

“He was trying to probe me whether I had a lot of ephedrine at that period in time,” he said, explaining that the two already had an estranged relationship. That strain was due, he said, to unpaid debts and an alleged domestic violence incident in which Wang risked bringing unwanted police attention to the syndicate after he fired a gun at his girlfriend, thankfully missing her.

Zhao said he couldn’t remember exactly how much Wang owed him, but “probably in the hundred-something thousands” due to ephedrine purchases he hadn’t yet paid for. One financial setback for Wang had come when “some gang bangers” raided a North Shore clan lab of his, taking all of the drugs and equipment.

“He had some things that really disappointed me,” Zhao said. “He’s taken too many drugs - I think his brain was probably damaged from so many drugs.”

Plot to kill Ricky Wang

Zhao said he was concerned enough after learning of the supposed kidnap plot to move houses, fearing that his live-in girlfriend might get caught in the crosshairs and harmed.

He initially considered giving it all up and leaving New Zealand, he said. But then he had a huddle with Gu, Fatty and two other henchmen he employed to discuss the situation and they talked him out of it, he said, explaining that they all wanted to keep the income flowing.

The crew brainstormed ideas, he said, before meeting a second time and hatching a plan.

“We thought there would be no better ideas ... than killing him,” Zhao explained. “Of course, we would need to ask him and confirm with him first. So we said we would tie him up and ask him whether that was true or not.”

On the night of August 19, 2017, Uncle Six said he went to a Chinese seafood restaurant in central Auckland with Wang and his girlfriend before inviting Wang to the Massey clan lab under the guise of looking at some meth-making equipment.

Wang’s girlfriend waited in the car while Wang came inside and found himself confronted at gunpoint by Zhao and his henchmen, who tied his arms and legs to a chair.

“He was shocked, asked, ‘What’s happening?’” Uncle Six recalled. “I just asked him whether he was going to kidnap me, kill me and take my warehouse. ...I remember Gordon’s gun was pointing at the back of his head.”

Wang denied it, but the crime boss asked him to explain why “these Westerners, gang members know the whereabouts of my warehouse”. “Then he was very angry and said, ‘You believe what the Westerners said and not believe me,’” Zhao recalled, explaining that then took Wang’s phone and ordered either Fatty or Gu, because they both spoke English, to look for evidence of disloyalty. They didn’t find anything, Zhao said, but he wasn’t satisfied.

The body of Bao Chang 'Ricky' Wang was found in 2020, three years after he vanished. Photo / Supplied

“I confirmed that he was definitely going to kill me,” he told the jury. “If he would hurt me then I would hurt him.”

Zhao decided to go outside to check on Wang’s girlfriend, he said, explaining that as he left the house the defendant approached him.

“Do I need to go with the plan?” Gu asked, according to Zhao, who recalled responding, “Okay.”

Nothing else was discussed as he left the house, leaving Gu and Fatty to complete the bloody task.

Covering tracks

Outside the home, Uncle Six said he decided to be partially upfront with Wang’s girlfriend, although stopping short of telling her he had just given the green light to have Wang killed.

“I talked to Ah Li [the girlfriend’s first name] roughly about this matter - that Wang wants to cooperate with others to kidnap me,” he explained. “So I just told her that I want to retain Ricky for a while to clarify the matter.

“She appeared to be shocked. It looked like she really didn’t know - she wasn’t just pretending.”

As another henchman nicknamed Kang Kang drove Uncle Six and Ah Li to the apartment she shared with Wang, Uncle Six recalled hinting more directly that she wouldn’t see her boyfriend again.

“I just said I need to keep Ricky, but I’m very certain [of his betrayal],” he explained, adding that he then suggested the woman renovate the apartment to hide the fact Wang had been using it, too, as a clan lab.

“I said once I’m certain of this matter then I wouldn’t like him to stay in New Zealand. I’d like him to go back to China. If he’s in New Zealand he would harm me.”

Neither Ah Li nor Kang Kang are believed to be in New Zealand any longer. Neither is slated to testify.

Massage parlour operator Tony Piao told jurors in the murder trial of Michael Gu that he secretly took this photo of drug boss Uncle Six in the same house where meth cook Ricky Wang was fatally stabbed one day after Wang's death. Photo / Supplied

After returning to the Massey address where Wang’s body lay, Zhao said he ordered his crew to search Google Maps for remote locations where the body might be dumped. At some point the body was put in an ice-filled bathtub at the residence, although Zhao said he had others deal with the corpse so didn’t remember specifics.

As the evening of the 19th turned into the morning of the 20th, two others were brought into the scheme: syndicate associates Tony Piao and Clive Zhang, also known as Jie. Uncle Six described Piao, a massage parlour operator who was demeaningly nicknamed “Brothel Boss”, as a small-time drug dealer who was brought in because he knew Wang’s ex-wife. Zhao wanted him to convince her Wang had run away to Australia.

But he said Piao also turned out to be unexpectedly keen to help dispose of the body, perhaps with an eye towards stepping into a more prominent role in the syndicate.

“He also suggested that Ricky had a cavity done to his teeth before so it would be a good idea to remove his teeth,” Zhao said.

It took three road trips outside of Auckland to bury Wang’s body properly, but it was eventually left encased in concrete in an area near the remote Desert Rd. Zhao said he didn’t accompany the crew during those trips because, as an overstayer, he feared long drives that might involve surprise checkpoints. He instead saw them off from the Massey residence where the murder had taken place.

“After that, I left my home and went to my friend’s place to drink alcohol,” he said. “The matter was making me feel not very well.”

A syndicate unravels

For over two years, it would have appeared to Uncle Six that he had gotten away with murder. But in other ways, his New Zealand criminal enterprise was starting to crumble.

The first major setback happened in January 2018, five months after Wang’s killing.

As part of Operation Stunsail, police executed a search warrant at a Mt Roskill clan lab where Gu and Piao, by then promoted to full syndicate member, were in the middle of a meth cook. Almost immediately, Piao secretly tipped police off to another lab where police found 100g of meth and multiple firearms including a pistol with a silencer and an AK-47-like semi-automatic rifle.

Police couldn’t locate Zhao that day but by April of that year they were zeroing in on him. They raided his girlfriend’s house, where they discovered a 9mm handgun and eight individually packaged sums of cash - including $30,000 in one baggie on top of the clothes dryer.

Uncle Six’s last day of freedom in New Zealand was in November 2018, when police finally caught up to him at a New Lynn motel. There they found $10,000 cash, a pistol and roughly $30,000 worth of meth. Yu was also arrested that day and found to have 1kg of meth in his car.

Yanlong 'Tony' Piao at an earlier court appearance. Photo / Sam Hurley

Zhao pleaded guilty to the drugs and firearms charges just over a year later and while awaiting sentencing Wang’s body was found, thanks in part to a confession to police from Piao.

He was sentenced in November 2020 to six years and seven months’ imprisonment, but by that time he was also awaiting trial on the murder charge.

Uncle Six first spoke to police about Wang’s death that year, denying during an hour-long interview that he had anything to do with it. He could specifically remember the night police said Wang was killed, he told them, because he had spent the evening partying with a woman on her 18th birthday.

Zhao went to trial for murder alongside Gu in July 2021, but that trial was aborted after new evidence was discovered.

Police and ESR scientists search a home in Massey, West Auckland in connection to the disappearance of Ricky Wang. Photo / Dean Purcell

Then in July 2022, he was interviewed again over the course of two days and fessed up.

During his subsequent murder sentencing, it was inevitable he would receive a life sentence but there was discussion about whether he should incur a minimum period of imprisonment of at least 17 years before he’d be eligible to apply for parole. He was given a significant discount for his police statement and willingness to testify against any remaining co-defendants, resulting in a shorter minimum period of imprisonment of 12 years and three months,

“I don’t think I made the right decision,” he was quoted as having told a report writer prior to the sentencing. “I regret it. If I could go back to that night, I wouldn’t do it. I would go back to China. But I was too scared that night. I was only thinking, ‘I hope I get away with it.’

“I do think about him. His parents and his children must be heartbroken, but I didn’t consider all this on the night. I shouldn’t have done that.”

Motivation to lie

The former crime boss’ testimony this week wasn’t just bizarre - it was unbelievable, defence lawyer Julie-Anne Kincade, KC, insisted as she spent over a day on Zhao’s cross-examination.

She suggested an alternative theory in which Zhao killed Wang himself inside Wang’s apartment during a heated argument, then put the corpse in the boot of Wang’s car and took it to the Massey clan lab so he could figure out what to do with it. The suddenness of that scenario made more sense than a planned hit in West Auckland carried out while Wang’s girlfriend waited in the car, she said.

It also would explain why Zhao was so intent on making sure renovations were done to Wang’s apartment even though Zhao had no connection to that clan lab, she suggested.

Uncle Six agreed that the defendant had gotten married on August 8, 2017, just 11 days before Wang was murdered, and that Gu had asked for a month off so he could go on a honeymoon. The reality, Kincade suggested, was that Gu wasn’t there during the planning or the execution of the murder - only appearing after Uncle Six ordered him back to help dump the body.

Police previously released this photo of Jian Qi Zhao while searching for him prior to his arrest. Photo / Supplied

The defence accused Zhao of playing along with the already existing police theory, agreeing to say whatever he needed to regardless of the truth so that he was seen to be cooperating with police. The goal, she suggested, has always been to get paroled as soon as possible so he can return to China and live a life of luxury with the millions he has hidden overseas.

Zhao disagreed with all of the defence theories, including that he had much money still squirrelled away.

He also disagreed that he is receiving any special treatment in prison as a result of his cooperation.

He remains incarcerated at Auckland South Correctional Facility in Wiri, a privately run prison where he has a phone in his cell, free usage of a kitchen to make his own food, an outdoor area and a gym. The residential section where he stays is usually meant for people near the end of their sentence getting ready to transition to the outside world - rarely for prisoners who have recently been handed lengthy sentences for murder, Kincade suggested.

In a report prepared for his sentencing last year, Zhao said he had sent some money back to China for his mother’s surgery, police had confiscated about $100,000 and he and his girlfriend squandered about $200,000 on “a luxurious lifestyle”, leaving him with little.

He acknowledged in the witness box having also given large sums of cash to his minions and their families, even doling out their legal fees after he himself was incarcerated. But he was hazy on specific amounts, blaming his former drug use for his faulty memory.

Kincade pointed out that the roughly 4000 calls Zhao has made from his prison cell have all been recorded, and many of them have been reviewed by authorities. She referenced a call in 2019 in which Zhao’s girlfriend was asking if it was okay to spend the $1 million he had put in his mother’s Chinese bank account. He offered to let her spend the interest, with the promise that after he’s released from prison he would put $3 to $5 million in the account, which would give her about $18,000 per month in interest that she could use however she wanted.

During a 2020 call, he discussed with his mother the impending demolition of her $3 million home in China. He lamented how he had done “dangerous work in New Zealand” and spent two years in prison in order to earn $5 million. He insisted this week that he would have been referring to Chinese currency, which would have amounted to about NZ$1m.

“I didn’t put much money in China,” he continued to insist, suggesting that some of the money he referred to would have come from the sale of a $3 million house he owned in Beijing before immigrating to New Zealand.

“I don’t normally have a good sense of numbers,” he added, before conceding: “Compared to ordinary people I have a bit more [money].”

“A lot more,” Kincade shot back.

“Depends on who you compare to,” he responded.

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.