{"id":410817,"date":"2026-05-04T05:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T05:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/410817\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T05:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T05:35:13","slug":"three-arrested-after-customs-seize-nangs-meth-pipes-tobacco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/410817\/","title":{"rendered":"Three arrested after customs seize nangs, meth pipes, tobacco"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three men have been arrested after border officers intercepted a shipping container full of nitrous oxide canisters, methamphetamine utensils and illicit tobacco at the Port of Auckland in March.<\/p>\n

The men are alleged to have imported approximately 1600 three-litre canisters of nitrous oxide, 21,400 methamphetamine utensils and 219 kilograms of illicit tobacco from China.<\/p>\n

Aged 35, 39 and 44, they appeared in the Manukau District Court last week on various charges relating to “the importation and possession of prohibited goods, and defrauding Customs revenue”.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The shipping container intercepted by customs was sent from China. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

Customs investigators and police executed search warrants at the defendants’ businesses in Botany, Massey, and Warkworth on Friday.<\/p>\n

Acting chief customs officer fraud and prohibition Kylie Campbell hoped the arrests would send a clear message to anyone thinking of importing prohibited goods.<\/p>\n

\u201cNitrous oxide is a harmful product when it is diverted for recreational use. Large-scale illegal importation poses real risks to communities, particularly young people, and can contribute to wider drug-related harm.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking closely with Police and other partners, our role is to stop prohibited and harmful goods before they enter New Zealand and to disrupt those seeking to profit from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"21,400<\/p>\n

21,400 methamphetamine utensils were found in the shipping container. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

The government announced a crackdown<\/a> on nitrous oxide last Wednesday. <\/p>\n

Imports of nitrous oxide now required direct approval from the Director-General of Health, and cannisters containing more than 10g will automatically be classified as psychoactive substances.<\/p>\n

“Last week\u2019s changes to the law will further strengthen the controls on the importation of nitrous oxide, and Customs is already actively enforcing those requirements at the border,” Campbell said.<\/p>\n

Further charges and arrests have not been ruled out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three men have been arrested after border officers intercepted a shipping container full of nitrous oxide canisters, methamphetamine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[51,67,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-410817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-auckland","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410817","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=410817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}