The jury in the cocaine horse-head trial has retired for the night and will continue deliberating on Wednesday.
US man Ronald Cook Senior, 56, and 44-year-old Augustin Suarez-Juarez of Mexico were arrested last July, after Customs made its largest-ever interception of cocaine.
They found 35kg of the class-A drug inside the glittering sculpture of a horse's head, which arrived by plane.
The drugs had a street value of $14m.
The jury deciding on the mens' fate at the High Court in Auckland interrupted deliberations just before 2pm to ask a legal question.
Justice Katz instructed the jury to try and reach a unanimous verdict on both defendants, or a majority verdict where a unanimous one was not "probable".
Charges against a third man, Gonzalo Rivera-Pavon, 30, were dropped last week.
The jury, which has been deliberating since Monday, reached a verdict on one of the two defendants earlier today but is struggling to come to a decision on the other.
The 12-person jury was reduced to 11 yesterday after one of the jurors was discharged due to bereavement.
Newshub.
