[420 Girl]

A former drug lord and rock promoter who helped smuggle a 10 tonne cannabis shipment into Australia and spent millions of dollars in profits has been deported to New Zealand. After 13 years in jail for his part in a drug and money-laundering operation, Ian Saxon, 65, was released from a Sydney jail yesterday and deported.

Police said he was a prime mover in smuggling 10 tonnes of cannabis resin into Australia by boat in 1989. When they raided a Sydney garage rented by his brother Lloyd in 1990, they found NZ$7.13 million in cash in $100 bills packed in two suitcases. That was just the tip of the iceberg - an order was later made against Ian Saxon to pay the Australian Government NZ$96 million in laundered profits.

Only NZ$13.75 million was recovered.

Saxon, once Australia's most-wanted man, escaped from Sydney's Long Bay jail in a laundry van while awaiting trial in 1993, but was found two years later living in a luxury beach house in San Diego, in the United States. He was subjected to standover tactics in jail - including being stabbed - because inmates believed he still had access to a lot of money.

A well-known Auckland cabaret compere in the 1960s, he later became a rock promoter and tour manager. Among acts he helped bring to Australia in the 1980s were Elton John, Kylie Minogue, The Police, Madness, Dionne Warwick, Duran Duran, Stevie Nicks, ZZ Top and Bon Jovi.

Lloyd Saxon spent eight years in jail.He was freed in 1999 and moved to Waiheke Island to live with his mother. She died four years ago and his father last year, but Lloyd still lives on the island, working as a carpenter.

Yesterday, he told The Dominion Post that news of his brother's freedom had taken him by surprise. "I was expecting him to be released in November." He would not say if Ian would stay with him. "He'd probably like it here. My life has got better and better since I've been here, but I don't know what will happen."

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