Customs has arrested five suspected drug couriers in three separate methamphetamine seizures at Auckland International Airport in just over a week, seizing a total of 51 kilograms of methamphetamine worth approximately NZ$15.2 million.
Customs officers located the drugs in plastic packages and inside a fake book.
On Monday 10 November, a 32-year-old United States national arrived in Auckland on a flight from San Francisco. Customs officers found 19 individual vacuum-sealed packages in one suitcase, and 17 packages in another, amounting to an estimated 19 kilograms of methamphetamine. This quantity would be worth up to NZ$5.7 million in retail value.
Officers also located a vial on a key chain with an estimated three grams of cocaine, worth around NZ$1,050 inside the passenger’s handbag.
Just a day earlier, on Sunday 9 November, Customs officers searched the luggage of a 69-year-old French national travelling from South Africa via Hong Kong and found a true classic. In his backpack, officers located a book titled ‘Apologize, Forgive, Forget’, which was in fact a wooden box concealing just under two kilograms of methamphetamine worth up to NZ$594,300.
A week earlier, on Sunday 2 November, three United States nationals, aged between 31 and 48, arrived on a flight from Los Angeles. A baggage search for two suitcases, belonging to one passenger, identified 11 individual vacuum-sealed packages amounting to nearly 30 kilograms of methamphetamine, worth a street value of approximately NZ$8.9 million. Two associated passengers were also arrested for their role in the smuggling attempt.
Customs Auckland Airport Manager, Paul Williams, says it’s been a record year for Auckland Airport in terms of drug seizures, with frontline Customs officers seizing an estimated 670 kilograms of methamphetamine and cocaine from passengers and unaccompanied luggage.
“Criminal networks are actively targeting New Zealanders by pushing their products here for profits. They keep sending packages, and we keep seizing them. We have every intention of continuing to catch drug couriers heading into a busier summer season,” Mr Williams says.
Everyone can help protect New Zealand’s border and communities. Suspicious activity, while travelling or working at airports, can be reported to a frontline officer or by calling 0800 WE PROTECT (0800 937 768) in confidence, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
