{"id":115220,"date":"2025-11-03T06:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T06:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/115220\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T06:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T06:58:07","slug":"cocaine-worth-12-6m-found-stashed-in-container-delivered-to-auckland-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/115220\/","title":{"rendered":"Cocaine worth $12.6m found stashed in container delivered to Auckland business"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"DlhGGFuIDuZ\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThis is a prime example of a \u2018rip on\u2019 or \u2018rip off\u2019 importation to try and sneak drugs into New Zealand,\u201d Hunt said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DlhGGFuIDuZ\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt\u2019s a common method used by criminal groups where they exploit the bona-fide details of a legitimate company\u2019s import.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"The cocaine was found in plastic bags, on top of legitimate product in the container. Photo \/ NZ Police\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>The cocaine was found in plastic bags, on top of legitimate product in the container. Photo \/ NZ Police<\/p>\n<p class=\"DlhGGFuIDuZ\" style=\"display:none\">An investigation is underway to identify the criminal syndicate involved. <\/p>\n<p class=\"DlhGGFuIDuZ\" style=\"display:none\">Hunt confirmed  police would work with overseas law enforcement agencies. <\/p>\n<p class=\"DlhGGFuIDuZ\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI acknowledge the staff for doing the right thing and it\u2019s great to have this product seized before it reached New Zealand communities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DlhGGFuIDuZ\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cFor context, removing this amount of cocaine from the market may have prevented up to $13m worth of social harm to the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"DlhGGFuIDuZ\" style=\"display:none\"> The discovery was less than a month after Customs officials seized <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/bay-of-plenty-times\/news\/customs-seizes-cocaine-from-panama-container-at-port-of-tauranga\/Z7TGC7Z26RAADMD6KA6764EVHQ\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/bay-of-plenty-times\/news\/customs-seizes-cocaine-from-panama-container-at-port-of-tauranga\/Z7TGC7Z26RAADMD6KA6764EVHQ\/\">a duffel bag containing 21 bricks of cocaine<\/a>, worth  about $7.3 million, from a shipping container at the Port of Tauranga.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DlhGGFuIDuZ\" style=\"display:none\">Inside the container, among legitimate goods, Customs officers found a shrink-wrapped bag with 21 bricks of the Class-A drug, branded with \u201cVESPA\u201d and a \u201cmouse logo\u201d and wrapped in \u201cfragile\u201d tape.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DlhGGFuIDuZ\" style=\"display:none\">In July, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/bay-of-plenty-times\/news\/customs-seizes-150kg-of-cocaine-at-port-of-tauranga\/HDO3YPB7FVHELBCJOP2LNGCC2A\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/bay-of-plenty-times\/news\/customs-seizes-150kg-of-cocaine-at-port-of-tauranga\/HDO3YPB7FVHELBCJOP2LNGCC2A\/\">150kg of cocaine<\/a> &#8211; worth about $58.2 million &#8211; was found at the Port of Tauranga in a shipping container from Jamaica.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DlhGGFuIDuZ\" style=\"display:none\">The bricks were marked with an \u201cX\u201d, the words \u201cgood luck\u201d and a coat of arms bearing the Latin phrase Custodi Civatatem Domine \u2014 meaning \u201cGuard the city, O Lord\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"DlhGGFuIDuZ\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis is a prime example of a \u2018rip on\u2019 or \u2018rip off\u2019 importation to try and sneak drugs&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[82081,82082,51,138,20926,50905,34088,1874,305,78,111,43,139,69,675,12641,29956,61,19985],"class_list":["post-115220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-126m","tag-36kg","tag-auckland","tag-business","tag-cocaine","tag-container","tag-delivered","tag-found","tag-have","tag-in","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-police","tag-seized","tag-stashed","tag-to","tag-worth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}