{"id":559512,"date":"2026-08-05T07:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T07:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/559512\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T07:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T07:00:13","slug":"three-charged-after-customs-busts-24kg-opium-smuggling-attempt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/559512\/","title":{"rendered":"Three charged after Customs busts 24kg opium smuggling attempt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two men have been arrested and charged with attempting to smuggle 24kg of opium into the country, with a third man charged with possessing prescription medication.<\/p>\n

Police were alerted after parcels containing the Class B controlled drug were stopped by Customs at the border between June 1 and July 19, Detective Senior Sergeant Michael Varnam said.<\/p>\n

The packages, sent from the United Kingdom and India, were intercepted in Auckland but were destined for Western Bay of Plenty. <\/p>\n

\"Bags<\/p>\n

Bags containing opium. (Source: NZ Police) (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

Three men were arrested last week after police carried out search warrants at 11 addresses in Tauranga, Papamoa, \u014cmokoroa and Te Puke.<\/p>\n

Varnam said police also seized “a significant amount of opium, steroids, cash and electronic devices”.<\/p>\n

Two men, aged 31 and 36, have been charged with importing opium, one also facing a representative charge of importing 48kg of the drug over the past 12 months. <\/p>\n

A 38-year-old man has been charged with possession of prescription medication.<\/p>\n

The trio are due to appear in Tauranga District Court over the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\"Opium<\/p>\n

Opium in two containers. (Source: NZ Police) (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

It follows the arrest of a man in April after police carrying out a search at a Tauranga address found 24kg of opium. The 38-year-old is currently before the court.<\/p>\n

Opium is highly addictive and can contain toxic chemicals which are seriously harmful to the body, affecting the brain, gut, liver, lungs, kidneys, skin, eyes and immune system.<\/p>\n

“The importation and supply of opium is a concern for us, and we will continue to target the people behind it. Police are continuing to work with the impacted community,” Varnam said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two men have been arrested and charged with attempting to smuggle 24kg of opium into the country, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559513,"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-559512","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\/559512","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=559512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}