NZ's most creative drug smugglers

(File)
(File)

Earlier this month, $20 million of methamphetamine, commonly known as 'P', came into New Zealand hidden in spatulas - not quite the kind of cooking they were intended for.

It's just one of the many creative ways criminals have tried to smuggle drugs.

In May, a diamante-encrusted horse hit headlines for containing New Zealand's largest ever cocaine seizure. The smugglers weren't horsing around, hiding 35 bricks of the stuff inside the 400kg sculpture.

In January, a 1.5 kg haul of meth was intercepted at Wellington airport inside an "unusually heavy" neck-pillow.

Recently, 4000 handbags hid 30kg of P inside small silica gel sachets worth an estimated $30 million.

On a smaller scale, nearly $10 million worth of the Class B drug ephedrine  a medication that can be used to make P - was stuffed inside thousands of tiny plastic toys, discovered in 2015 inside a shipping container from China.

Over the years, New Zealand customs has also intercepted:

This criminal creativity is global.

It's a constant challenge for customs officers around the world to keep up with these imaginative offenders.

Newshub.