But she said \u201cunfortunately there\u2019s just so much more around. We\u2019ve seen in our wastewater results, there is just a huge amount of drugs\u201d.<\/p>\n
Costello said the increase has been notable over the last 10 to 15 years, as drugs are becoming cheaper to produce and being produced in greater volumes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis idea that New Zealand used to be far away and that we are somewhat isolated \u2013 that\u2019s not the case anymore,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSupply chains and technology means that we\u2019re being hit hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials estimate illicit drug harm carries an estimated social cost of $36.7 million each week \u2013 or $1.9 billion each year.<\/p>\n
A ministerial advisory group on transnational and organised crime estimated that $1.6b in profit is generated through drug crime and fraud annually.<\/p>\n
The paper states agencies were increasing efforts to reduce the flow of illicit drugs and other illegal products into communities and noted the Government has supported an improved response through an increase to the Customs budget last year.<\/p>\n
Costello noted a particular increase in methamphetamine, saying New Zealand has one of the highest retail prices for meth in the Western world and was a \u201cvery lucrative market\u201d to big business cartels and organised crime networks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere isn\u2019t one part of the border we need to strengthen. It\u2019s coming through small packages and parcels. It\u2019s coming through container freight. It\u2019s coming through couriers that traffic it through the airports. It\u2019s coming through unaccompanied baggage \u2013 every way in which they can circulate it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Costello said the Government was working on a collective, collaborative approach, where agencies can work together on the response to organised crime.<\/p>\n
She admitted it was a \u201cdifficult environment\u201d when it came to securing more funding in the upcoming Budget, but said other practical steps are taking place, including working on information sharing to dismantle cartels.<\/p>\n
\u201cAl Capone got taken down by tax evasion. It is literally that kind of approach,\u201d Costello said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery lever we can pull, we should be able to pull.\u201d<\/p>\n
She applauded the work of agencies intercepting and disrupting the transnational drug trade, stating she gives credit to those frontline workers that are \u201cdoing so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Costello said the country was fighting \u201csuch a big enemy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do really applaud the agencies. We\u2019re not winning, but I wouldn\u2019t say we\u2019re losing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cabinet paper highlighted the importance of this work on economic growth, as disrupting transnational and organised crime groups can maintain New Zealand as a \u201ctrusted trading partner\u201d and a safe destination for tourists.<\/p>\n
In a statement, acting Customs investigations manager Nigel Barnes said: \u201cCustoms continually evolves its tradecraft to stay ahead of criminal groups who employ all manner of tactics, including using air couriers, novel shipping methods and concealments and infiltrating legitimate supply chains.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had to broaden our focus at the border \u2013 from simply detecting drugs to identifying facilitators, money mules and other enablers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Barnes said Customs was collaborating with industry partners to prevent criminal groups targeting and exploiting people, or vulnerabilities, in supply chains.<\/p>\n
The importance of \u201crobust accountability\u201d is detailed throughout the document, which suggested New Zealand was \u201cwell-placed to be world-leading\u201d in its response to transnational crime, due to a single enforcement agency and its legal system.<\/p>\n
But officials noted that \u201cour current response is fragmented\u201d and reiterated the importance of co-ordination across agencies.<\/p>\n
It comes after the Government agreed on a set of actions to address meth-specific harm, which specifically calls for Customs, the Defence Force and the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) to undertake maritime operations to disrupt organised crime across the Pacific.<\/p>\n
Prior initiatives responding to organised crime showed a return on investment of $3.40 for every dollar.<\/p>\n
Azaria Howell is a multimedia reporter working from Parliament\u2019s press gallery. She joined NZME in 2022 and became a Newstalk ZB political reporter in late 2024, with a keen interest in public service agency reform and government spending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But she said \u201cunfortunately there\u2019s just so much more around. We\u2019ve seen in our wastewater results, there is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7501,2840,2681,6224,806,51,682,8605,2841,17899,3401,1757,95544,1888,3011,6098,117857,3594,185,685,6722,3234,130,117,111,43,139,69,312,12641,1515,131,3608,379,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-370112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-7501","9":"tag-across","10":"tag-airport","11":"tag-airports","12":"tag-as","13":"tag-auckland","14":"tag-being","15":"tag-border","16":"tag-country","17":"tag-customs","18":"tag-drug","19":"tag-drugs","20":"tag-entirety","21":"tag-first","22":"tag-four","23":"tag-hard","24":"tag-hauls","25":"tag-hit","26":"tag-is","27":"tag-last","28":"tag-minister","29":"tag-months","30":"tag-more","31":"tag-new","32":"tag-new-zealand","33":"tag-news","34":"tag-newzealand","35":"tag-nz","36":"tag-says","37":"tag-seized","38":"tag-surge","39":"tag-than","40":"tag-were","41":"tag-year","42":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370112","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=370112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}