AUCKLAND: The latest million-dollar drug bust in Wellington came as a result of Customs profiling techniques, and the monitoring of “risk countries”.
Police and customs arrested a teenage tourist from China last week after intercepting $1 million of methamphetamine found hidden in soup packets at Auckland Airport’s cargo centre.
A kilogram of the drug was hidden among four soup packets, spread across two sachets to each packet, and concealed in a courier parcel from Macau, destined for an address in Johnsonville, Wellington.
Chief customs officer Kirk McPherson, based in Wellington, said that Customs closely monitored all good entering or leaving New Zealand.
Drugs were detected through a number of different techniques, including X-rays, detection dogs, profiling, and monitoring of “risk countries”.
The soup packets were found through profiling detection. “When someone comes into the country, it is scanned into New Zealand. That tells us where it comes from, who it comes from and where it goes to.
“We have all sorts of techniques. We have universal tools that are open to us so we pick up parcels like these.”
Customs and police seized about six large quantities of drugs every month, McPherson said.
“It comes into the country in all sorts of ways. Some of them are very clever.”
He recalled another drug sting about nine months ago, in which a haul of drug-soaked moist towelettes, destined for Wellington, were intercepted, resulting in two arrests.
About $1 million worth of liquid methamphetamine, amounting to about 3.5 litres, was concealed in the toiletries.
“These finds definitely keep us on our toes and keep us ahead of the game … if they [smugglers] see that it’s [drugs] been found one way, they will try another way.”
