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Nine people have been arrested after allegedly helping import 100,000 ecstasy tablets from England in the past three months.
The pills were reportedly concealed in food or toys in parcels which originated at top London department store Harrods, The Dominion Post reported.
Auckland Drug and Organised Crime Squad head Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Cahill said police recovered 14,000 of the pills and found $150,000 cash as part of Operation Pave.
He said they also stopped someone trying to leave New Zealand with $US439,000 ($NZ653,273).
Ecstasy, a popular nightclub drug, sells for $60 to $80 a tablet in Wellington and $30 to $40 in Auckland.
Mr Cahill said the ecstasy market appeared to be much larger than police thought.
He did not agree people were turning back to it after BZP party pills were made illegal, saying the use of party pills may have encouraged users to sample "the real thing", ecstasy.
The arrests coincided with the arrest of 73 people in Wellington in an operation where up to $1 million worth of methamphetamine, ecstasy, LSD and cannabis was found.
Mr Cahill said the police choice to focus on methamphetamine, or P, could have allowed the importation of other drugs to slip through more easily.
"What it does show us is our resources that we have had to put into methamphetamine in the last few years have left us exposed in these other areas and they need attention as well."
- NZPA
