Police have found the body of missing Auckland man Ronny Okeke and are now treating the death as suspicious.

A police spokesperson says yesterday the investigation team and Police Search and Rescue had been searching parts of the Kaimai Range.

The location the body was found was some 130 km from where he was last spotted in Sandringham in late April.

Auckland CIB Detective Inspector Glenn Baldwin says enquiries led the team to carry out a search that resulted in finding the body.

He says police came across the body after searching a section of bush in the Kaimai Range area.

“A scene examination has been conducted and the body has now been removed from the site.

”Formal identification procedures still need to be carried out, however based on the information we have gathered to this point in the investigation we believe that this is Ronny.”

Glenn says police have spoken with Okeke’s family in Nigeria overnight.

“This is news that no family ever wants to hear, and they are devastated that Ronny will not be coming home,” he says.

”A post-mortem is scheduled to take place over the coming days, and this will hopefully assist our team in shedding some light around Okeke’s death.”

Police earlier said they believed he was involved in an altercation or on around April 27, the day he was last scene, but have not revealed the other party or parties in the dispute.

”What we do know is that this altercation occurred, and Ronny has not been heard from since,” Baldwin said last week.

During the inquiry into his disappearance police repeatedly said they had grave concerns for the man.

Glenn says police are committed to finding what happened surrounding the death.

”Police have previously executed search warrants and spoken with a person of interest in this investigation.

”A forensic examination of Ronny’s mobile phone is continuing after it was recovered as part of enquiries in previous weeks.”

Police want to hear from anyone with information about Okeke’s death.

Okeke, 60, was charged as part of a major police money laundering operation in 2021, but the charges were dropped later that year.

He was also involved in an altercation on the day he was last seen, police believe.

Money laundering charges

Okeke was charged with two counts of money laundering as part of Operation Ida in May 2021.

Operation Ida was a sprawling police operation targeting a woman who laundered millions for a transnational drug syndicate from a Newmarket money remittance business.

Police allege Okeke was involved in using the remittance business to transfer more than $250,000 in cash to China without proper checks being performed as required by the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act.

However, the two money laundering charges he faced were dropped by the prosecution later in 2021, the Auckland District Court confirmed.

He had previously been before the courts, the Herald understands.

Court documents obtained by the Herald show the over a quarter of a million dollars of cash police alleged Okeke transferred to China was the proceeds of crime.

At the time he was charged in 2021, Okeke was listed in court documents as living in a central Auckland flat but has since moved to Sandringham. He was unemployed when he was charged.

-NZ Herald.