27-year-old Alan Tran arrived at Auckland Airport in June last year, joined by Eugenio Navarro a fortnight later.
The pair's arrival cards showed they were visiting for a short time... but Customs discovered they had rented a storage unit.
A search of the unit turned up 109 kilograms of methamphetamine - worth about 54-million dollars - and lab equipment.
The court heard Tran was more than just a drug catcher, because he'd hired a truck to move the meth and helped extract it.