Police and Customs have disrupted the largest drug bust at New Zealand's border, catching offenders who were shipping meth disguised in maple syrup bottles from Canada.
The nearly three-quarter of a tonne of crystal meth was almost enough to cover one year's worth of supply of methamphetamine, according to wastewater data.
But unfortunately, the seizure is one of many as police warn New Zealand has become a target of transnational crime groups supplying drugs.
Police revealed on Wednesday it is the biggest drug seizure in New Zealand by over 100kgs.
"It's kind of sad in some ways that we keep coming and saying that we are getting bigger and bigger seizures…. But that's the reality," National Organised Crime Group director for NZ Police Detective Superintendent Greg Williams told reporters.
New Zealand, Australian and Canadian authorities worked together to disrupt the operation by a global criminal syndicate.
Back in January, a shipment of maple syrup from Canada was intercepted and found to be concealing 713 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine which has a street value of roughly $250 million and would produce around 35 million doses.
Dubbed Operation Regis, police waited until a group of five men, aged between 22 and 45, took possession of the maple syrup when it arrived at a rural property near Helensville and arrested them. A sixth man, aged 28, was also arrested when he sought to take possession of the remainder of the consignment.
They are due to reappear in the North Shore and Auckland District Courts in due course.
Police estimate this seizure would have caused close to $800 million worth of social harm, according to drug harm index figures.
Police said it was part of a wider shipment of methamphetamine bound for the Australasian market and had to wait until Australia had identified the people involved in their shipment to make Thursday's announcement.
Canadian Police seized in May and June a total of 3225 litres of liquid meth concealed within canola oil and destined for Australia. Australian police said in a statement these seizures are suspected to be from the same organised crime group that shipped meth to New Zealand.
A total of six people have been arrested in Australia, however, police across the ditch have not ruled out further arrests.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said the interception of methamphetamine is the largest New Zealand has seen at its border, but authorities cannot afford to relax.
"The international drug trade and organised crime groups are creating havoc and harm in communities around the globe, and our best opportunity to disrupt, intercept, and keep our communities safe, is to work collaboratively with other agencies, and other nations," Coster said in a statement.
"This seizure of nearly three-quarters of a tonne shows the effectiveness of working across borders.
Coster said the seizure will help combat the harm the drug does to New Zealand communities.
"Had this shipment been distributed across New Zealand it would have caused immense harm to the vulnerable communities these criminal groups were preying upon," he said.
Police noted this seizure was a separate syndicate to the one earlier this year where liquid meth was found in beer cans, causing the death of an innocent 21-year-old, Aiden Sagala, who died after unknowingly drinking it.
Large drug seizures on the rise
Det Supt Willams said there is a large number of transnational crime groups wanting to pump drugs into communities like New Zealand.
"We are seeing a massive increase in the production of methamphetamine and cocaine across the world so we are in a situation here of massive supply," he told reports on Thursday.
"They are really targeting New Zealand because we continue to pay some of the highest prices in the world for methamphetamine and there's just massive profits now for them."
Williams said methamphetamine prices overseas are tumbling but here in New Zealand they are staying at relatively the same levels since when the drug arrived here in the 2000s.
Unfortunately, the seizure was just one of multiple large seizures over the past 12 months at customs.
New Zealand Customs Comptroller Christine Stevenson said Customs is increasingly seeing transnational organised crime groups undertaking large-scale drug smuggling attempts like this one to try to breach our border.
"It points to the determination of these criminals to peddle their harm in our communities for their own personal wealth and at the expense of our communities, regardless of the damage to social, health and wider economic wellbeing," Stevenson said.
"Our message to transnational organised crime is that we are aware of what they are doing, how they are doing it, and we will use the combined resources of New Zealand Customs and our partner agencies here in New Zealand and around the world to stop them and hit the profits they try to extract from our communities and our economy."
Other recent large drug seizures:
- February 2023 – the combined Police, Customs and New Zealand Defence Force 'Operation Hydros' recovered 3.348 tonnes of cocaine from the Pacific Ocean northeast of New Zealand.
- March 2023 - 83 kilos of methamphetamine found concealed in pallets that had arrived at Napier Port from South Africa.
- 2 March 2022 - Customs seized 613 kilograms of methamphetamine at Auckland Airport.
- 16 March 2022 – Customs seized more than 700 kilograms of cocaine which was smuggled in a shipping container that arrived at the Port of Tauranga.
