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Customs NZ has warned concealment methods by drug traffickers are becoming more sophisticated.
Recent operations have uncovered meth and MDMA declared as arts antiquity, a water fountain - even a cremation urn.
Customs has released a detailed list to the Herald of creative drug importation methods it has recently intercepted at the border
Criminal groups are smuggling drugs into New Zealand in new “strange, sophisticated and complex ways”, Customs has warned.
In a detailed list released exclusively to the Herald, a spokesperson has revealed Customs has recently intercepted 495g of methamphetamine disguised as toothpaste and 1.485kg of methamphetamine concealed in green imitation stoneresin spheres and declared as ‘arts antiquity’.
Suspected methamphetamine (4.4kg) has been imported within wax candles, and about 3.748kg of MDMA declared as a ceramic water fountain.
Liquid meth has been hidden in branded soda apple juice, MDMA hidden in a coffee table, and more meth disguised in a rubber boat, concealed in metal pipes - even hidden inside a metal urn declared to Customs as a cremation vase.
Items used to conceal drugs at the border include a diamante-encrusted horse head (cocaine), children's toys (MDMA), hair products (cocaine), lollies (methamphetamine) - and a methamphetamine crystal seized by authorities. Composite photo / NZ Customs and Police
Criminals have long been creative in their efforts to get illicit drugs into New Zealand: A 400kg diamante-encrusted horse head statue was brought in from Mexico via Hong Kong by plane in 2016, stuffed with 35kg of cocaine - at the time the largest cocaine seizure in New Zealand history. The drugs had an estimated street value of up to $14 million.
Customs sounded a similar warning last year with its report “Strategic Border Threat Assessment 2023” which indicated traffickers were attempting to hide drugs with increasing sophistication and organisation.
“Sophisticated methods include deep concealment within machinery, and in liquid food and beverages,” the report said.
The report also noted the same packaging methods were being discovered in drug imports from different regions - indicating suppliers were becoming highly organised across borderlines.
Customs analysts flagged the shipment for inspection in September which uncovered “inconsistencies” in some of the 42 steel beams, which led to x-rays and meth discovered.
The 515kg of methamphetamine seized in the operation is the third-largest importation found at New Zealand’s border.
The consignment was then tracked to a rural Waikato address, which was raided, leading to five men appearing in the Auckland District Court on drug import and supply charges. The investigation is ongoing.
Police and Customs found 515kg of methamphetamine inside these steel beams imported from the United States in September 2024. Five men, aged between 31 and 51, were arrested and charged with drug offences following Operation Girder. Photo / NZ Police
City Mission staff tasted the lollies after receiving a complaint, agreed they tasted odd and began to “feel funny”.
The NZ Drug Foundation tested the lollies and found “potentially lethal levels” of meth - each sweet contained 3g of pure meth or 300 doses of the Class A drug.
A staff member was hospitalised after trying one. RMHC had received the parcels from the City Mission.
Baldwin said police would work with Customs and Interpol as the investigation focused on the drugs origins and how they ended up with the City Mission.
There were eight police staff working on the investigation, dubbed Operation Tirade.
The Rinda brand pineapple lollies are individually stuffed with a lethal amount of methamphetamine and some remain at large.
Photo / NZ Drug Foundation
This meth-laced lolly could kill. The Rinda brand pineapple lollies were found to be stuffed with methamphetamine, each with a street value of $1000 according to the NZ Drug Foundation. Photo / NZ Drug Foundation
Customs NZ began its investigation after border profiling led to the interception of a shipment from the United States around April 10.
An examination led to the discovery of 58kg of methamphetamine concealed in the bitumen rolls, an industrial product used for roofing and road purposes.
Customs investigations manager Dominic Adams said the investigation, dubbed Operation Brig, has identified an organised criminal syndicate and led to the arrest of at least one key Rebels gang figure.
Customs charged three people after an investigation into the smuggling of approximately 58 kilograms of methamphetamine hidden in bitumen rolls shipped from the United States. Photo / Customs
Boxes of “paper” and food packets
Customs seized 47kg of methamphetamine, worth up to $16.45 million, at Auckland Airport after it was discovered in boxes sent from Malaysia.
Four unaccompanied boxes arrived at Auckland Airport from Kuala Lumpur in mid-August and were detained by Customs.
The yellow boxes declared as “paper ream” and marked as “IK Yellow” but officers found each box hid black duffel bags instead.
Inside the bags were 46 packages of “Prince Durian” food packets which concealed approximately 47kg of methamphetamine.
The methamphetamine would have been worth up to $16.45 million in street value.
Customs discovered 47kg of methamphetamine drugs concealed in boxes falsely labelled as "paper reams" and send by air freight to Auckland Airport from Malaysia. The drugs had a street value of more than $16 million. Photo / Customs
Customs found the drugs - valued at $70 million - inside the threshing machines, which were seized at the Port of Auckland resulting in nine men being arrested and charged.
The machines had been trans-shipped to New Zealand from Dubai and police said the seizure contained about 10 million doses of the Class A drug.
Police National Organised Crime Group Detective Inspector Tom Gollan said it was a sophisticated concealment method.
The four thresher machines were delivered to a rural property in Patumahoe on July 4, and a search warrant was subsequently executed by Police and Customs under Operation Brewer.
“Four men, aged between 18 and 28, were taken into custody at the property.
“The group were arrested as they were dismantling the threshing machines to access the methamphetamine,” Gollan said.
A stash of just under 200 kilograms of methamphetamine, roughly 10 million doses, was confiscated in Operation Brewer. Photo / Police
The methamphetamine was concealed within threshing machines, seized in Operation Brewer. Photo / NZ Police
Delphine Ganon, 42, arrived at Auckland International Airport on April 25 2023, and was stopped for questioning by a Customs officer.
Her two suitcases were examined, revealing white powder in the lining of one suitcase that tested positive for cocaine.
Five cosmetics bottles also tested positive for liquefied cocaine.
She was convicted for importing and possessing a Class A controlled drug (cocaine).
The 4.3kg of cocaine recovered from the suitcase and cosmetics bottles would have produced about 43,300 common doses, with an estimated total street value of up to $1.94 million.
The woman used shampoo bottles to conceal 2.25 litres of liquid cocaine. Photo / Supplied
The $38 million cocaine haul was hidden around the outside of pipes inside the hulking boiler.
“This was a very sophisticated method of concealment with excellent collaboration of border authorities, which was key to identifying and flagging this import as suspicious,” Detective Inspector Paul Newman said.
Raids following the investigation by the Police National Organised Crime Group found an enormous amount of the white powder at a New Lynn commercial property.
Police alleged seven men were involved.
One of them was Paul McAuslin, a patched member of a Hells Angels Nomads chapter in Auckland.
Several defendants are set to stand trial next year.
The Ecuadorian boiler in which the pipes containing cocaine were hidden. Photo / NZ Police
Victor Martos was sentenced in April 2021 for his role in the 2019 smuggling operation between Mexico and Auckland.
Customs investigations identified that he had been in contact with a Mexican-based freight forwarder, and they had negotiated with an Auckland-based fresh produce importer [who was not implicated] about importing avocado pulp into New Zealand.
While the first import of frozen pulp had no drugs in it, the second shipment was sent to a different Auckland address.
The polystyrene boxes containing the puree had false bottom compartments, which held eight packets of methamphetamine wrapped in brown packaging tape, Customs said.
Customs arrested Martos after he used a hired van to move some of the polystyrene boxes to an Auckland storage unit.
A shipment of 113kg of methamphetamine linked to a Mexican cartel was hidden in a shipment of avocado pulp. Photo / NZ Customs
2020
LED lights, clothing, ornaments, toys, cosmetics, and thermos flasks
A 27-year-old Chinese national was charged after he was linked to the importation of at least 17 packages, which contained about 46 kilograms of MDMA (also known as ecstasy), six kilograms of ephedrine, and one kilogram of methamphetamine.
The packages had been sent through the mail or air freight from various countries across Europe, Customs said.
Drugs were hidden in an assortment of items such as giraffe, flamingo and hippo stuffed toys, LED lights, clothing, ornaments, cosmetics and thermos flasks.
The man was known to use false identities to facilitate the smuggling and faced 16 charges of importing a class B controlled drug and one charge of importing a class A controlled drug.
Customs officers inspected a shipping container of three six-seater golf carts, exported from the US in January 2019.
Close examination revealed the batteries hid large, ice-like methamphetamine crystals and two loaded handguns.
Chiu Tan Yu and another man in New Zealand were arrested following search warrants in February 2019.
The drugs were described by the sentencing judge as having a minimum wholesale value of $17.6 million, capable of causing $136 million worth of “societal harm” to New Zealand.
Around 110kg of meth was found inside golf cart batteries in February. Photo / Supplied
A close up of a large ice-like methamphetamine crystal hidden inside golf cart batteries and found by Customs. Photo / Supplied
2018
Printer toner cartridges
A 28-year-old Canadian passport holder, apparently on holiday in New Zealand, imported 17.9 kgs of methamphetamine inside printer cartridges.
Customs monitored the delivery of the cartridges and arrested Jingyuan Zhang, who was sentenced to eight and a half years imprisonment for importing and possessing the meth.
Customs said at the time of the arrest that renting short-term accommodation to receive illegal drugs is a known tactic of criminal syndicates.
This amount of methamphetamine had a street value of up to $9 million in New Zealand.
17.9 kilograms of methamphetamine that was found in printer toner cartridges. Photo / Customs NZ
X-ray machines picked up inconsistencies in the solid mass of the umbrella stands, and the concrete blocks gave a positive result for methamphetamine.
There were no hidden cavities or secret compartments - instead, the meth had been mixed with gypsum, a plaster or chalk-like substance, then cast into the shape of umbrella stands.
Once safely through border controls, the Class-A drug could be easily extracted by dissolving it in water.
At the time, it was the largest-ever consignment of cocaine into New Zealand - the drugs had an estimated street value of up to $14 million.
Customs and police set up a sting to track the jewel-encrusted horse head after they seized it when it arrived in the country.
The cocaine was so well-hidden it took an hour to remove. Customs repackaged it with identical-looking blocks of flour and planted a tracking device in the statue.
It was then sent to its intended address, an Onehunga storage facility and investigators watched as two men extracted what they believed was their cocaine.
US man Ronald Wayne Cook Senior, 58, and Mexican national Agustin Suarez-Juarez, 46, were charged with possession of and attempting to supply a class-A drug.
Cook was sentenced to a total of 17 years and nine months imprisonment and Suarez-Juarez to 19 years and nine months.
The cocaine was found in a diamante-decorated horse head sculpture. Photo / Supplied
Thirty five bricks of high-grade cocaine, weighing 1kg each, were smuggled into New Zealand in a 400kg diamante-encrusted horse sculpture. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Jaime Lyth is a multimedia journalist for the New Zealand Herald, focusing on crime and breaking news. Lyth began working under the NZ Herald masthead in 2021 as a reporter for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei.
