Gang workers ‘expected to be clean and business-like’ while pumping South Island with life-ruining drug
Friday, 8 May 2026
The Comanchero Motorcycle Club expected its muscle to act cleanly and professionally while drenching the South Island in a life-ruining drug.
One of its workers was 43-year-old Karl Stewart Muir, whose methamphetamine addiction led him to quit Australia for Aotearoa in 2016, leaving his family behind.
Eight years later Muir was transporting the same drug 360km across the South Island for senior Comancheros – with whom he connected over an interest in motorbikes.
Justice Jonathan Eaton on Thursday imprisoned the gang nominee for four years and six months at the High Court at Christchurch, with his family watching on.
It was the latest sentencing linked to a multimillion-dollar enterprise that moved 30kg of Class A drugs around New Zealand, until police arrested the entire Christchurch Comanchero chapter in 2024.
The court heard Muir supplied product locally at the direction of senior gang members, after methamphetamine and cocaine were flown in from the North Island.
Justice Eaton summarised four trips around April 2024, in which the former concrete tile roofer couriered a total 980g of methamphetamine from Christchurch, on some occasions travelling 360km to Dunedin.
The court heard Muir left New Zealand at age 2. He began using drugs as a teenager and they were commonplace in his Australian trade. Eventually, he got hooked on methamphetamine, which was the catalyst for his return to Aotearoa.
He sought a fresh start in Tauranga and, when that did not work out, another fresh start in Christchurch. There, he said drug use and an interest in motorbikes led him to the Comancheros, who valued his drug connections.
Muir had said he did not use methamphetamine with the gang, Justice Eaton said, “because members were expected to be clean and business-like”.
The judge previously noted the irony.
Justice Eaton said Muir knew first-hand the negative impact the substance had on individuals, relationships, mental health and more.
“It literally ruins lives … there is no question, and I hope you do understand that our society as a whole is severely harmed by people who involve themselves in the dealing of Class A drugs.”
In letters to the court, Muir’s family expressed their care for him and said they would support him. They pointed to a work accident leading Muir to dealing drugs for cash, but Justice Eaton was sceptical.
Muir assured the judge: “My family’s fully aware of everything, they know I’ve used drugs for years, just haven’t known to the extent I used them”.
His sister believed Muir had undiagnosed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and an early diagnosis may have placed him on another path. Pre-sentence report writers also pointed to possible ADHD.
Justice Eaton accepted Muir genuinely wanted to become drug-free and heal his relationship with his children. He had good rehabilitative prospects, but would require “solid support” on his release.