The Herald's War on P series last year produced an overwhelming reaction from readers and a swift response from the Government. This week, we revisit the people and the issues to find out what has changed.
Chinese drug smugglers are posting P ingredients to New Zealand in thousands of parcels each year, in an apparent shift in tactics to escape detection and boost profits.
A six-week blitz by Customs late last year intercepted 230kg of pseudoephedrine - the main ingredient in methamphetamine - which would have been worth $84 million when converted into the drug.
Customs drugs investigations manager Mark Day said that until about a year ago organised crime groups in China appeared to be relying on bulk imports of 80kg or more in shipping containers.
But the pseudoephedrine intercepted in October and November last year came from small-scale postal seizures instead.
Mr Day said the Chinese importers, who were basically businessmen, had probably decided a "gunshot" technique of mailing thousands of small packages was more profitable and less risky than the big shipments.
They could buy a kilogram of pseudoephedrine-based Contac NT, which was a legal cold medicine in China, for about $10 and spend another $10 to $20 posting it to New Zealand.
The smugglers then paid $100 to $500 per delivery to local "catchers", generally Asian students who waited for the packages at letter boxes.
Each kilo of pseudoephedrine would produce at least 500g of methamphetamine, which would sell for between $400,000 and $500,000 - a huge mark-up for a very small outlay.
It also spread the risk of interception as smugglers made a big loss when Customs discovered their shipping container stashes, which were worth up to $60 million or more.
"They work on the basis that if they can get 20 per cent through, they're good. Anything more than 20 per cent they're winning big time, anything up towards 80 per cent, they're creaming it.
"If they send a whole lot of little ones through, it doesn't get much on the radar."
Last year's joint Customs-police operation made 15 arrests and recovered triple the amount of pseudoephedrine found in the same period in 2008.
It used 140 Customs staff redeployed from other areas, under the Government's promise to tackle P through more effective border policing.
Mr Day said the main change was having extra people to inspect suspicious parcels and then react quickly once they discovered the precursor drug. It took a team of 15 to 20 people to organise a "controlled delivery", in which police and customs rewrapped the package, sent it to its destination and watched to see who picked it up.
Drug importers used online track-and-trace monitoring to follow the progress of each package, so Customs and police had to set up a team within minutes or the gangs would become suspicious and abandon the delivery.
The operation discovered large numbers of young Chinese students receiving the packages, which suggested the need for more education.
Mr Day said Customs was keen to work with the Stellar Trust to set up anti-P education programmes in schools, so overseas students realised they were breaking the law and putting themselves in danger.
The educational approach was new for Customs but staff could not hope to stop the drug smuggling by finding every suspicious parcel: "We've got to be open-minded and innovative in our thinking. If we don't do that I suspect we're going to struggle in this game for a long time."
National Drug Intelligence Bureau co-ordinator Stuart Mills agreed importers were using more small parcel deliveries, but said that did not mean big shipments had stopped.
THIS WEEK
Monday: Addiction treatment.
Tuesday: Prison v rehab.
Today: At the border.
Tomorrow: How to spot a P lab.
Friday: Organised crime.
Saturday: Experts' views.
www.nzherald.co.nz/go/war-on-p
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