Mr Asia podcast: How Marty Johnstone and Terry Clark changed the NZ drug scene forever

For much of the 1970s, Marty Johnstone operated as one of New Zealand’s most notorious drug dealers.

Dubbed ‘Mr Asia’ by journalists at the now defunct Auckland Star newspaper, Johnstone rose from North Shore menswear salesman to head of a global heroin empire.

But his life at the top was short lived. In November 1979, his mutilated body was found in a quarry in Lancashire, England. He was just 27 when he was murdered, killed by his best friend, Andy Maher.

It soon turned out Maher was only following orders. For while Johnstone was the face of the Mr Asia gang, behind the scenes, Terry Clark was the man pulling all the strings – and ordering the deaths of those who wronged him.

The epic rise and rapid fall of the country’s most infamous drug gang is retold in Mr Asia: A Forgotten History, a new six-part podcast series from the New Zealand Herald and Bird of Paradise Productions.

Hosted by John Daniell and Noelle McCarthy, the series tracks how Marty and Terry came to cross paths, the friendship they built as they took their empire around the world, and how jealousy and betrayal brought it all crashing down.

Watch the head of NZ police’s National Organised Crime Group below on how today’s methamphetamine threat compares to the Mr Asia heroin syndicate and read the full story here.