The meth was found in pails of grease, police say. Photo / Supplied
The meth was found in pails of grease, police say. Photo / Supplied
Three Auckland men have been arrested as authorities disrupt alleged plans to import a large shipment of methamphetamine into New Zealand via the Port of Tauranga.
The arrests were made yesterday after an investigation following Customs' find of a container filled with pails of grease alleged to contain methamphetamine originating from Iran.
The total weight of the drug is yet to be determined, but police said in a statement they expected it to be a commercial quantity based on the concealment method.
The find was part of Operation Lithium, a combined NZ Police National Organised Crime Group and Customs investigation looking into the importation of a significant quantity of methamphetamine into the country.
The three men arrested yesterday were aged between 21 and 42 years and were all charged with importing the methamphetamine. The 21-year-old man has also been charged with threatening to kill.
They were to appear in the Auckland District Court. All face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
National Organised Crime Group Detective Senior Sergeant Reece Sirl said methamphetamine devastated many vulnerable communities while organised criminal groups continue to profit off this type of offending.
"This seizure at the border is another demonstration of the police and Customs working together to disrupt and dismantle organised crime networks and to make New Zealand more resilient to transnational organised crime."
Cam Moore, Customs' manager of investigations, said: "Criminal gangs think they are untouchable, but this operation proves them wrong.
"We have stopped their drugs from reaching the New Zealand market, where it could have had a significant economic and human toll.
Customs seized the shipment of pails on May 10. Photo / Supplied
"Customs, police and our overseas partners have the intelligence, capability and tools to dismantle these criminal networks – and every determination to continue doing so."
Police would not rule out further arrests as the investigation was ongoing.
Police would not be commenting further as the matter was before the court.
The Port of Tauranga has been the scene of several major drug busts in recent years.
In March, Customs at the Port of Tauranga seized 700kg of cocaine on a ship from South America. The street value of the drug was estimated at $280 million.
In 2019, two Fijian seamen smuggled an estimated $17m worth of meth into Tauranga. Customs officers found 34kg of methamphetamine stashed in packages in various parts of a container ship.
That same year, a Chinese national imported 25.5kg of ephedrine into New Zealand. It was found aboard a ship docked at the Port of Tauranga.
In 2017, three men in a fishing boat retrieved 46 packages each containing 1kg of cocaine from a ship docked in the port. At the time, the haul, worth $20m, was the largest single shipment of cocaine discovered in New Zealand.
A jury trial is set down for next year for nine men accused of being part of an alleged plot to smuggle hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and P with links to a Mexican cartel through the port.
According to the police, hundreds of kilograms of cocaine were to be concealed inside shipping containers, but the alleged conspiracy plot was disrupted before the shipment reached New Zealand.
