{"id":469870,"date":"2026-06-10T08:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T08:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/469870\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T08:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T08:26:13","slug":"prada-branded-cocaine-worth-35m-seized-in-tauranga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/469870\/","title":{"rendered":"Prada-branded cocaine worth $35m seized in Tauranga"},"content":{"rendered":"

A shipment containing 100kg of cocaine, worth up to $35 million, was seized from a container in Tauranga. <\/p>\n

The drugs were found in a refrigerated container, which was carrying other legitimate goods, at the Port of Tauranga on Monday. <\/p>\n

Customs said an X-Ray of the container showed “inconsistencies in stacked boxes near the container door, indicating a common rip-on\/rip off method used by criminals”.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The drugs were found in PRADA branded bricks. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

Officers found 10 boxes, each containing 10 bricks with the word “PRADA” on each. <\/p>\n

The 100 bricks were later confirmed by testing to be cocaine. <\/p>\n

“Enquiries are ongoing,” Customs said. <\/p>\n

Customs said the container had been loaded in Chile before transiting through Peru, Colombia and Panama. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The bust was made after officers noticed “inconsistencies in stacked boxes”. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

Before the ship and container arrived in New Zealand, they were risk-assessed as part of standard procedures for all incoming cargo. <\/p>\n

\u201cTransnational serious organised crime groups are continuously testing border security and supply chains globally, looking for vulnerabilities they can exploit,” Customs Maritime Manager, Robert Smith said. <\/p>\n

“This seizure highlights our ability to detect those efforts and intervene before harm reaches our communities.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A shipment containing 100kg of cocaine, worth up to $35 million, was seized from a container in Tauranga.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[67,42,43,1756,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-469870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-tauranga-bay-of-plenty","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469870","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=469870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}