{"id":26874,"date":"2025-09-17T01:20:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T01:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/26874\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T01:20:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T01:20:07","slug":"waihi-man-charged-after-9million-meth-smuggling-attempt-uncovered-by-customs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/26874\/","title":{"rendered":"Waih\u012b man charged after $9million meth smuggling attempt uncovered by Customs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"IGIlsTinqXLQ\" style=\"display:none\">Police arrested a 31-year-old man from Waih\u012b, who appeared in the Tauranga District Court on drug smuggling charges after a parcel, declared as macadamia nut samples but containing over 2kg of methamphetamine, was intercepted by Customs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"IGIlsTinqXLQ\" style=\"display:none\">International partners have seized packages in Australia, the United States, Pakistan and Thailand.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Police have intercepted packages containing methamphetamine disguised as macadamia nuts.\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Police have intercepted packages containing methamphetamine disguised as macadamia nuts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"IGIlsTinqXLQ\" style=\"display:none\">Customs investigations manager Dominic Adams said the operation came as a result of strong international partnership and targeting low-quantity high-frequency drug smuggling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"IGIlsTinqXLQ\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe surge in global e-commerce has significantly increased the volume of goods crossing our borders,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"IGIlsTinqXLQ\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWith that growth comes heightened risk, with criminal networks and individuals increasingly attempting to exploit our air freight and mail systems to move illicit substances.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"IGIlsTinqXLQ\" style=\"display:none\">This follows police and Customs\u2019 l<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/largest-ever-gbl-haul-14m-worth-seized-four-arrested-in-wellington\/MQR2X4WDHNG2BMLII3MRU2QNEU\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/largest-ever-gbl-haul-14m-worth-seized-four-arrested-in-wellington\/MQR2X4WDHNG2BMLII3MRU2QNEU\/\">argest-ever haul<\/a> of gamma butyrolactone, also known as fantasy or liquid ecstasy, last month in Wellington.<\/p>\n<p class=\"IGIlsTinqXLQ\" style=\"display:none\">Nearly 2000 litres of GBL were seized at the border with a street value of $14m, according to police.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Police and New Zealand Customs seized nearly 2000 litres of gamma butyrolactone, known as Fantasy or liquid ecstasy, in August.\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Police and New Zealand Customs seized nearly 2000 litres of gamma butyrolactone, known as Fantasy or liquid ecstasy, in August.<\/p>\n<p class=\"IGIlsTinqXLQ\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThis is believed to be the largest-ever seizure of drugs at New Zealand\u2019s border,\u201d Rachael Manning, the chief Customs officer for regional investigations, said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"IGIlsTinqXLQ\" style=\"display:none\">Four men aged between 38 and 75 who were arrested as a result of the bust appeared in the Wellington District Court on a variety of charges, including importation of methamphetamine and GBL, possession for supply of GBL, methamphetamine and cocaine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police arrested a 31-year-old man from Waih\u012b, who appeared in the Tauranga District Court on drug smuggling charges&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[26763,74,4496,1558,17287,3595,13239,17899,13919,1757,42,296,23758,5158,1868,43,26764,24689,14347,10890,40,38,41,39,17293,26762,80],"class_list":["post-26874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-9million","tag-after","tag-attempt","tag-been","tag-busted","tag-by","tag-charged","tag-customs","tag-disguised","tag-drugs","tag-headlines","tag-into","tag-macadamia","tag-man","tag-meth","tag-news","tag-nuts","tag-packs","tag-smuggle","tag-smuggling","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uncovered","tag-waih","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26874","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=26874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}