New Zealand's Biggest Ever Meth Bust Is the Latest in a Year of Bizarre Importations

Northland police have made the largest meth seizure in New Zealand history, and the latest in a series of big—and bizarre—busts this year.

Three men appeared in court today charged with importing and possession of NZ$448 million worth of class A drugs, intended for supply.

The men had been making locals suspicious over the past few weeks after driving around offering cash for help launching boats off 90 Mile Beach. Soon after getting involved, the police arrested two Auckland men aged 31 and 26. They then spotted another wanted vehicle: a rented campervan driven by a third man.

When they opened it up, they found 448 kilograms of methamphetamine inside of 15 travel bags. The meth had been packed into ziplock bags drenched with salt water. The Northland District commander, Superintendent Russell Le Prou, explained the salt water connected the haul to an abandoned boat at 90 Mile beach—presumably the boat they'd been enlisting help to launch. "From the sounds of it, they were running around trying to get help from neighbours to get their boat out. It sounds very amateur from that point of view."

2016 has been ushered in with a series of busts out of the ordinary. In January, a waitress flying from Auckland was arrested at Nelson Airport, allegedly carrying meth in a jar of Marmite. A sealed plastic container submerged within the yeast spread held several rocks—expected to fetch an estimated NZ$17,000 on the street.

Court documents showed the woman had been using coded language to correspond with clients—"a quarter pack from KFC, here if you still want something for tea," read one text, which was code for a quarter gram of methamphetamine.

Also in January, a Les Mills personal trainer and bodybuilder was remanded at the Wellington airport with 1.5 million dollars' worth of methamphetamine stashed in his neck pillows.

Several months later a large-scale police raid discovered a meth lab and a firearms stash in South Auckland warehouse. Then, just four weeks ago, a series of coordinated raids seized another $171.2 million of methamphetamine.

But all of that pales in comparison to this strange caravan bust. This single seizure roped in more meth than last year's busts added together.

Russell told RNZ if the drugs had made it to the street the damage could have been colossal. "I would say 448 kilograms would have a significant impact on New Zealand…that level of harm we can't tolerate."

Customs is still investigating where the drugs originally came from.

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