Customs also found homemade Mongolian cheese in her luggage.

Just which passengers will be fast-tracked through the country's airports is yet to be decided - but the new system will initially be by invitation only.

A passenger from Vietnam arrived in NZ with live Siamese fighting fish in plastic bags, declaring them as "wet fish" on his arrival forms.

New Zealand Customs has destroyed more than $62 million of illicit drugs this week.

Z Energy will get back $9.5 million of the amount it paid last year to settle a dispute with New Zealand Customs.

Border officials caught the lemon smuggler at Auckland Airport after she arrived on a flight from Hong Kong on Monday.

Hayden Bacon was sentenced to almost 3 years in jail.

A major IT project that took four years longer than originally planned and is almost $30 million over the initial budget is not another Novopay, Customs says.

Customs said one aim of the exercise was to show potential terrorists or WMD smugglers New Zealand was not a soft touch

Claims of a computer being destroyed at a New Zealand airport after scans suggested a gun was being smuggled inside have baffled Customs.

A children's toy, mahjong tiles, nail polish, and a puffer jacket were just some of the objects packed with illegal substances by drug smugglers this year.

Herald investigation: Border Patrol has created an unrealistic expectation about the job of Customs officers, says the chief executive of the border protection agency.

People might not always connect Internal Affairs anti-fraud specialists with a sense of humour.

Fruit fly-infested chillies, dried frogs and a tiger tooth are among the weird goods travellers have been trying to get past New Zealand border staff in the last month.

Around $50 million worth of illegal drugs have been destroyed in a Customs drug disposal operation yesterday.

Four Asian tourists are facing life in prison after being caught allegedly trying to smuggle over 12kg of methamphetamine into the country.

US tourists say NZ airport security's confiscation of their chutney and jelly was bullying and has tarnished their holiday.

An international flight that diverted to an airbase after trying to land at Auckland in bad weather was the only plane to be re-routed, stranding 260 passengers.

A plane with more than 260 passengers on board made two attempted landings at Auckland Airport before being forced to divert to a military airbase and wait.

Police have shut down two sophisticated drug rings and seized meth worth up to $123 million during a series of busts across Auckland.

Customs is intercepting more mail containing cocaine, LSD and Ecstasy as people use online drug marketplaces to order recreational drugs.

A Canadian teenager has been jailed for nine years for importing almost $2 million worth of methamphetamine in supplement containers.

A woman who imported nearly $1 million of methamphetamine in the post made the police's job significantly easier by having it delivered to her home.

Is it really necessary to look at the contents of personal computers at the country's borders? Clearly Customs is already doing so.

More weapons are being intercepted at New Zealand's borders but the law limits investigations into those behind importations, Customs says.

Customs is seeking new powers including requiring a person to provide a password or access to their electronic devices and make them empty their pockets.