After a gruelling day at work, Aiden Sagala decided to pop open a chilled beer to unwind - but that choice would turn out to be deadly. What the 21 year old didn't realise was that his tin had been packed with liquid methamphetamine, and that just one mouthful would claim his life.

The tragic incident occurred on March 2, 2023, when Aiden selected a can from a crate of beer that had been given to him by his employer, which he'd taken back to his home. He was residing with his sister Angela and brother-in-law Billy in Auckland, New Zealand at the time.

Cp24 reports that Aiden and Billy were relaxing at home with a mate when they chose to sample some of the tall tins branded as 'Honey Bear Beer' from Canada, reports the Mirror.

However, Billy revealed that after Aidan took his initial swig, he questioned whether the beer tasted 'salty'. Billy informed him that his beer was perfectly fine, so Aiden requested he sample his drink.

"I went to have a taste to see what he meant. So I only took a sip, but I spat that out real fast... it tasted like sea salt with chemicals. I told him I didn't fully swallow."

Billy explained that Aiden then went to ring his mum - and the situation began to deteriorate rapidly, with Aiden emerging from his bedroom moments later telling his brother-in-law he believed he was about to perish. He grew progressively distressed and physically violent.

"He was screaming out, 'I want my mom, I want my mom. I'm dying, I want mom. I'm dying, I want mom,'" Billy remembered.

Throughout this ordeal, Aiden's mum was forced to listen helplessly on the other end of the line. In a state of panic, Billy rang his wife Angela, who dashed home to assist her brother.

When Aidan's face began turning blue, she dialled for an ambulance. However, it took an hour for the paramedics to arrive and in the interim, Angela - a doctor herself - started performing CPR on her younger brother.

Sadly, Aiden slipped into a coma and passed away five days later. His cause of death was noted as multiple organ failure due to a lethal dose of methamphetamine.

Aiden's premature death would eventually lead to the exposure of a massive drug smuggling operation with connections in India, the United States and Canada.

When New Zealand police initiated their investigation into Aiden's death, their case led them to a storage unit in Auckland. They carried out a raid and found approximately 700 kilograms of liquid methamphetamine. It was the largest single seizure of methamphetamine in the nation's history.

Police allege that Baltej Singh, a local supermarket owner, had imported large quantities of meth disguised as drinks into New Zealand. These included shipments of kombucha from the US, coconut water from India and nearly 29,000 cans of Honey Bear beer from Toronto.

Aiden's boss, a man known as Himatjit 'Jimmy' Kahlon, was caught on CCTV removing cases of beer from the unit. He was accused of assisting in the conversion of the liquid methamphetamine into crystal meth.

Kahlon was subsequently distributing the surplus cans that actually contained beer, inadvertently leaving some cans that were still filled with liquid meth in the cases. He was later charged with manslaughter in relation to the death.

Police also charged Singh, a respected businessman in Auckland and member of a prominent family, for orchestrating the import operation.