Four men were arrested after a joint investigation by police and Customs.
The bust highlights organised crime’s infiltration of ports, with calls for increased vigilance and security.
One of the most influential members of the Comancheros gang has been charged this week with allegedly importing 200kg of drugs removed by force from the Port of Tauranga.
The arrest of such a senior figure in the outlaw motorcycle group comes four months after two men allegedly broke into a shipping container at the port and loaded five suitcases into their car, as previously revealed by the Herald.
The pair allegedly drove away recklessly at high speed towards Whakatāne but the brazen daylight heist in December ended when police laid out road spikes on the Eastern Link highway.
Police said a total of 200kg of methamphetamine were found inside the suitcases in the boot of the car, along with an angle grinder and gloves allegedly used to break into the shipping container.
One of the most influential members of the Comancheros gang has been charged with allegedly importing 200kg of drugs removed by force from the Port of Tauranga.
Two men, both 28, were charged with entering the Port of Tauranga without authority, possession of instruments for burglary, refusing to give police the passcodes to their phones and possession of a Class-A drug for supply.
Two other men, aged 33 and 36, were arrested a week later after a joint investigation by the National Organised Crime Group and Customs and charged with importing the 200kg meth shipment.
Four months later, the high-ranking Comanchero was arrested in Auckland on Tuesday.
The man, in his 30s, was also charged with importing the 200kg of meth as well as refusing to give police the passcode to his phone.
The Comanchero has also been arrested in relation to a separate police investigation.
He was charged with participating in an organised criminal group with two men, aged 31 and 35, and attempting to obtain cocaine for supply in February.
The two other men, believed to be Israeli nationals, were also charged with manufacturing cocaine, as well as possession of precursor ingredients and equipment to manufacture the Class-A drug.
At the time of the raid on the Port of Tauranga in December, Detective Inspector Albie Alexander said the four men arrested had links to the Mongrel Mob, but also the Comancheros and Filthy Few outlaw motorcycle gangs.
“Even more significantly, we believe we have now shut down an insider threat at the port and inquiries into this aspect will continue.”
The alleged burglary happened after Customs officers became aware of suspicious concealment during a routine X-ray of the shipping container, which was flagged for further inspection.
Alexander believed the alleged criminal syndicate may have been operating from inside the port for some time.
Law enforcement has repeatedly warned about organised criminal groups probing for weaknesses at the border, either through burglaries or corrupt “insiders” who can circumvent security measures to smuggle drugs into the country.
But the 200kg of methamphetamine found in the suitcases in Tauranga was the biggest bust of its kind.
There have been other alleged break-ins at the port in recent years.
In December 2023, three men linked to the Comancheros motorcycle gang allegedly cut a wire fence and entered the grounds of the port in the middle of the night.
The trio had allegedly driven down from Auckland the previous day and had purchased around $500 of high-visibility clothing and work boots. Tools and duffel bags were also found in their car.
However, no drug shipment was found in connection to the burglary.
Several months earlier, security staff at the Port of Tauranga raised the alarm with police after finding signs of a break-in at the boundary fence.
Over the next two days, Customs officers then searched 36 shipping containers and discovered plastic-wrapped cocaine “bricks”, weighing 26kg and worth an estimated $12 million, inside the refrigeration unit of one container. Three men were arrested.
Dominic Adams, the investigations manager at Customs, said New Zealand continued to be an attractive market for organised criminal groups to smuggle drugs, including methamphetamine and cocaine and illicit tobacco.
Customs was seeing an increase in legitimate imports being targeted by overseas criminal groups who conceal illicit drugs within freight containers or container contents, which are later recovered by New Zealand-based criminals, Adams said. This can involve attempted break-ins to collect the drugs.
“We know that criminal groups attempt to circumvent border and port security processes to intercept drugs. We work closely with port companies, their security teams and our police colleagues to ensure people who intentionally attempt to breach port security measures are identified and apprehended. Our increased port and maritime presence is helping us face this threat,” Adams said.
“Criminal infiltration of the supply chain is common overseas and it is a threat that all supply-chain businesses, including port companies, should be alert to. The Customs Border Protect team has a range of resources to support businesses to identify and report criminal infiltration in the supply chain.”
A number of recent covert investigations have uncovered corrupt port and airport staff – known as “having a door” into the country – working for gangs.
In 2019, a supervisor at the Ports of Auckland was caught after a shipping container flagged for inspection disappeared from the wharves on the back of a truck in the middle of the night.
The container was linked to the Mongols motorcycle gang and $90,000 was found in a shoebox at the supervisor’s home.
A baggage handler at Auckland International Airport was caught on camera unloading a secret stash of methamphetamine on a Malaysian Airlines flight.
Several linked investigations focusing on Auckland International Airport revealed rival crews of baggage handlers smuggling drugs for the King Cobras gang and other criminal syndicates.
And in Operation Tarpon, a stevedore at the Port of Tauranga was sent to prison as part of a plot to smuggle 200kg of cocaine belonging to a Mexican cartel.
With millions of dollars to be made from the methamphetamine trade in New Zealand, police and Customs have long warned of the risk of bribery and corruption.
However, the arrival of outlaw motorcycle gangs such as the Comancheros after senior members were deported as “501s” from Australia has accelerated the need for greater vigilance.
Although making up only a small fraction of the “501″ deportees, nicknamed for the section of the immigration law used to remove them on character grounds, law enforcement believes these gangs have led to an escalation in the criminal underworld.
The Comancheros were mentioned by name in a report by an independent expert group published this week which warned that New Zealand was “losing the fight” against organised crime and urged the Government to take urgent action.
In recent years, there have been record-breaking drug busts at the border as global crime syndicates – including Mexican cartels – have targeted New Zealand as a small but lucrative market.
But despite more drugs being seized than ever before, the consumption of methamphetamine more than doubled in 2024 to the highest levels recorded in national wastewater testing.
The advisory group to Cabinet minister Casey Costello is likely to recommend “bold steps” to strengthen anti-money-laundering measures and achieve better information-sharing between government departments.
In recent years, the Comancheros have been relentlessly targeted by the police National Organised Crime Group in a series of covert investigations into drug importing and distribution across the country, as well as money laundering and firearms violence.
Jared Savage covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006 and has won a dozen journalism awards in that time, including twice being named Reporter of the Year. He is also the author of Gangland and Gangster’s Paradise.
