Auckland Airport cocaine bust: 100kg in bags smuggled on Hawaiian Airlines flight

Auckland, NEW ZEALAND — The New Zealand Herald is reporting more than 100kg of cocaine has been busted in a smuggler’s bags at Auckland International Airport.

Customs officers were doing routine border enforcement when they checked a number of bags arriving off a Hawaiian Airlines flight on Saturday night.

Officers found 85 bricks of a substance wrapped in black film and clear plastic wrapping. Tests returned a positive result for cocaine.

Customs believes the 101kg found over the weekend is the largest amount of cocaine found at a New Zealand airport.

And Customs is concerned the number of their seizures at the airport had been steadily increasing in recent years, group manager for border operations Dana McDonald said.

The estimated street value of the Class A drug was $35.4 million, and would have caused $37.8m in social harm to New Zealand’s communities.

McDonald applauded his frontline officers for the find.

“Customs officers are highly trained and cognizant of how transnational organized criminal groups operate. We work hard to stop the supply of illegal drugs, with an aim to hit criminal profits, reduce the ability to cultivate user demand, and disrupt their goal to exploit New Zealand communities,” he said.

“While this seizure is a fantastic result that has stopped a significant amount of drugs from reaching and harming our communities, what is of Customs concern is that seizures at Auckland Airport have increased steadily in recent years. We have adapted accordingly to this threat.

“In the first two months of this year, Customs officers at Auckland Airport have already seized over 183 kilograms of drugs, which highlights the important role we play in protecting New Zealand as well as the environment we operate in,” McDonald says.

Inquiries into Saturday’s seizure are ongoing.