March 2, 2025 • 19 mins
It’ll come as no surprise to anyone that meth is a serious problem in New Zealand.
Wastewater Testing results show the consumption of the drug in New Zealand more than doubled in the second half of 2024 to the highest levels ever recorded.
At the same time, the New Zealand Drug Trends Survey (NZDTS) 2024 showed the average price of a gram of meth declined from $563 in 2017/18 to $360 in 2024.
Meanwhile, Wastewater testing in Ōpōtiki shows meth use there has halved after police raids on an alleged Mongrel Mob drug ring.
Today on The Front Page, Herald investigative reporter Jared Savage is with us to run through the state of meth in our country.
Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.
Host: Chelsea Daniels
Sound Engineer/Producer: Richard Martin
Producer: Ethan Sills
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Kiota.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by the.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
New Zealand Herald.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
It'll come as no surprise to anyone when I tell
you that meth is a serious problem in New Zealand.
Wastewater testing results show the consumption of the drug in
New Zealand more than doubled in the second half of
twenty twenty four to the.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Highest levels ever recorded.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
At the same time, the New Zealand Drug Trend Survey
twenty twenty four showed the average price of a gram
of meth declined from five hundred and sixty three dollars
in twenty seventeen eighteen to three hundred and sixty dollars
last year. Meanwhile, wastewater testing in Oportiki shows meThe use
there has halved after police raids on an alleged mungol
(00:58):
mob drug ring. Today Day on the Front Page, Harold
investigative reporter Jared Savage is with us to run through
the state of myth in our country. Jared, Look, it
comes as no surprise when we say myth is popular
in New Zealand, but just how prevalent is it?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
It's ticking in the number one drug of choice in
New Zealand. It has been for quite some time, about
the past twenty twenty five years or so, but you know,
we've really seen a big surge in the consumption of
myth late last year. So the police and ESR scientists
sort of worked together with wastewater testing, so it gives
(01:43):
sort of it's not the only way of working out
how much myth has been consumed, but it is an
objective scientific measure by which you can sort of see
whether the trend is going up or down. And so
for about the past six years they've been running this
program and sort of use just fluctuated sort of between
ten to twenty kilos per week, and there were some
(02:05):
big sort of factors in the ten kilo at the
lower limit that was when New Zealand was a complete
lockdown during early twenty twenty, and then the peak of
twenty kilos it was about a year later when the
world had opened up a little bit there was a
bit more travel and freight coming back and forth. But
of course Auckland was in lockdown at that point and
(02:27):
there was a lot of people similarly using meth during
that time, and it peaked at about twenty kilos, so
between ten and twenty kilos over the past sort of
six years and normally in the middle of that, sort
of hovering around the sort of the fifteen kilo mark,
and that's where it was in June last year, just
over fifteen kilos, and then from July to December last year,
(02:49):
the wastewater testing showed a huge increase, so going from
fifteen kilos each week to thirty kilos each week for
the second half of last year, and it peaked in
October with about thirty nine nearly forty kilos of myth
being consumed each and every week last year. So you know,
it's doubled, it's doubled from the peak, and it's doubled
(03:11):
from what has sort of historically been this sort of
traditional midpoint that we've seen. And it's it's quite an
alarming discovery that we've found through the wastewater data.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
What can we put this down to?
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yeah, so it's hard to sort of explain exactly why
why people are consuming more, and there are lots of
reasons that people would use drugs, but it's really comes
out of simple economics. Talking to various researchers and the
police experts as well. Essentially, the world is a wash
with drugs. There is a huge amount being produced overseas
(03:43):
and that has been since to New Zealand an increasingly
large amount. So the market here is saturated. It's been
flooded with metham betamine and other drugs, but mostly metham betamine,
and that has led to more supply equals cheaper prey
equals more consumption, and that's pretty much what it boils
(04:04):
down to.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah, I was surprised to read somewhere. I think I
showed the average price of a gram of math declined
from about five hundred and sixty odd dollars in twenty
eighteen to three hundred and sixty last year, So that's
going to have something to do with it.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
A So that's right. So that's the you know, that's
that prices come down, and that's those figures come from research.
To my massive University professor Chris Wilkins is the lead
researcher in New Zealand and has done so for twenty years.
And you know they interview anonymously drug users regularly and
that's how they update those figures there. So if it's cheaper,
(04:40):
you can if you're a user of methanbenaman and it's cheaper.
You can therefore use more of it for the you know,
and not spend any more money. And so that's the
cheaper prices have come from the market being flooded and
more myth being used. Chris Wilkins was interviewed with the
story and he said all the metrics going in the
(05:00):
wrong direction on this, and he described it as a
wake up call.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Well, we already know that cartels overseas have been eyeing
up New Zealand for years now. Hey, we've got syndicates
based in Southeast Asia and more recently actually the Mexican cartels.
Just in November, a Columbia led global operation thwarted the
plans of six subs carrying fourteen hundred tons of drugs,
(05:25):
one of which was headed to Australia and New Zealand.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
The Columbian Navy says it's intercepted a Narco submarine bound
for Australia. Official say it's the third such vessel ceased,
indicating a drug smuggling route across the Pacific.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
A coordinated effort in the multinational orient Strategy led to
the seizure of over fourteen hundred tons of narcotic substances.
Of these, two hundred and twenty five tons of cocaine
stood out, which would represent more than five hundred and
seventy four million doses on our streets.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Now that's huge.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
So no cartel would risk the capture of that larger
shipment of drugs if it didn't think the risk was
worth the reward.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Hey, well that's right.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
And I mean in New Zealand for a long time,
we are a small We're a small market, you know,
compared to the rest of the world. But a lot
of these organizations see sort of Australia and New Zealand
together as sort of a one to a one two stop.
So obviously our big brother across the tasmin much bigger market,
but also commands quite high prices. So even though the
prices have come down in New Zealand, it's still high
(06:43):
by comparison internationally. So it's a small market but seen
as lucrative. So that is why we're being targeted by
Mexican CATAUS Southeast Asian organized crime groups who work candy
glove here with sort of organized crime figures here, including
sort of the outlaw motorcycle groups you know, in particular
sort of you know, the common Cero's and some of
(07:03):
those other five x one gangs that have really elevated
that they've got true international connections with these groups overseas,
and that's elevated the supply and that's led to what
we're seeing here with with far greater consumption. Literally the
figure is doubling last year.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Now you mentioned these cartels work hand in hand with
local gangs. Here, tell me a little bit about a Portaki.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Yeah, so a Portoki is a small town in Easter
made plenty and last year sort of garnered a few
headlines because there was quite a big drug bus down
there involving the mongrel mob. And I don't think they
would have been working hand in glove with the cartels,
but somewhere along the supply chain that that myth had
been getting into a poto Key. And like many smaller
(07:47):
real towns around around the country, they are sort of
disproportionately affected by methan betamine. Their sort of average per
capita consumption is often far greater than the national average.
So you know, there's some big headlines last year about
this this raid, these raids, this COVID investigation called Operation
high water in a podoquy, and that led about twenty
odd members of the Mong the Barbarians Chapter and their
(08:09):
associates being being arrested and charged with various drug dealing
and money laundering offenses. Now that's all before the courts
and you know, yet to be proven. But what the
wastewater shows is that after those raids was a dramatic
decrease in methectomy consumption and a podokey. So I think
in the month leading up to the raids it was
(08:29):
around about one hundred and nineteen grands per week was
being consumed in a podige, which is a bear in
mind a small town of about five or six thousand people.
Following month that dropped down to sixty six grands, so
nearly hard So whilst the rest of the country was
going up, a podokey went down following the raids, and
then the next month that went down again to fifty
(08:52):
four grands a week, again while the rest of the
country went up. And so you know that indicates that
sort of strong and fours does have an impact in
terms of in terms of consumption because obviously they're cutting
off the supply or the major supply into the town
because members of the Munger Mob and at the same time,
the police are also kind of being that. They run
(09:13):
a program called the Revilliance to Organize Crime and Community.
So that's it's called ROCK ROCC and that's where like
dedicated police stuff sort of work hand in hand with
community community leaders and NGOs and EWE to sort of
support sort of meth harm production program. So they'll go
and do a big raide, you know, and years gone by,
you know, the police would that was their job. They
(09:35):
would go and do that and sort of walk away
to the to the next, to the next operation. In
this case, they're working in there with with local families
to make sure that you know, they're getting food on
the table, getting their kids to school, getting how it
preferred into the meth amphetames, sort of education programs and
rehab that that kind of work there on the head
(09:55):
of the Rock Program. Infected Jock o Keep said it's
been about seven hundred and twenty thousand and funding been
guarded to sort of keep supporting the work that the
local groups, the local community leaders and ewi's are already doing. So, yeah,
there is a glimmer of hope out there, and of.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Course at the borders as well.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
They're ramping up looking for these importations of drugs. And
when I think about recent history that there've been some
pretty big busts. I'm thinking over the last five six years.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
He oh, absolutely every year there seems to be another
record breaking drug bust. I mean I've been reporting on
this these issues about fifteen years. Back then, one kilo
was quite a quite a big deal. The record back
then and for many years was back in two thousand
and six was ninety five kilos of methamphetamine coming in
(11:00):
from China. That was a huge deal. It was seen
as an outlier for about ten years, and then we
saw five hundred and one kilos sort of wash up
on the beach that famous case Operation Frontier up in Northland.
And then from then, I mean now five hundred kilo
stezias are almost routine. So certainly one hundred kilos is
a routine now and so we're seeing four or five,
(11:23):
six hundred. I think the biggest at the border Caesar
is about seven hundred and thirteen kilos that was hidden
inside maple syrup bottles which had been imported from Canada.
Although it's I guess it's suspected that the myth would
have been transshipped from Mexico up to Canada and then
to New Zealand where it was caught. So we are
seeing huge, huge amounts of you know, busts happening every year,
(11:46):
I guess, And people might look at that and go, oh,
that's great, we're catching more. Well, I think the opposite
is true. We're catching these bigger amounts because more is
being seent here and that sort of you know, and
that has been sort of born out in the wastewater
of data that we seeing where we're stopping more than
ever at the border, but we are consuming way more
than ever, And I guess that shows how saturated the
(12:07):
market really is.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah, and criminals can get really tricky in how they
try and conceal these drugs as well. I remember once
heading to customs and actually seeing the myth that was
concealed inside batteries of these golf carts that were being
imported from the US.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
I think that was about twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
So what are some of the strangest ways you've seen
meth trying to be concealed?
Speaker 1 (12:29):
I mean, maple syrup's got to be one of them.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Oh, look, there. You know, there are so many ways
to conceal myth or other drugs. Honestly, the mind boggles
at how many there have been. It's almost only limited
by your imagination. Probably the best concealment I've seen was
where myth was mixed in with like a concrete like
(12:51):
substance and then poured into an umbrella stand. So they
were being imported in the country as umbrella stands, and
the organized crime Syndicate it had sent people to New
Zealand set up these businesses to import umbrella stands amongst
other furniture, and when it got here, they were then
breaking up the umbrella stands with you know, drills and
(13:13):
hammers and bits and pieces, and then running it through
a fairly complicated sort of process to break it back
down into myth and then being sold. I think it
was about one hundred and eighty kilos or something. It
was a big amount, But that's probably the best concealment
I've seen. But I mean, of course, another trend that
we've seen of later is organized crime groups not even
(13:33):
needing to hide or conceal the myth anymore. You know,
there's been some quite well documented cases of corruption within
the airports and at the port of Auckland, the port
of Turnongar, where you know, these prime groups and outlaw
motorcycle gangs have insiders working there. Cramped insiders who are
you know, are paid to essentially facilitate the smuggling of
(13:55):
the drugs straight in. And often the drugs aren't even hidden,
they're just sort of boxed up normal cardboard boxers. But
if you've got someone in there who can move things
around and get it out of the warehouse before it
can be checked and so on, they're no one is
having a door into the country. And it's often as
simple as that for these groups.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
And we often talk about math, but also I see
that the cocaine has had an uplift in use in
this country. The latest NZED health survey noted there was
an increasing availability of cocaine in New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
It found an increase in the number of users. Two
point four.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Percent of adults used cocaine in the past year. Historically
that figure has been around zero point five percent.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Of the population. So are we seeing more cocaine get
through as well?
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yes, we are in a big proportional increase, but still
small compared to myth but I mean, cocaine has been
on the rise here the last few years. I mean,
I guess it doesn't have quite the same stigma as myth.
That's probably seen as a bit more of a white
collar party drug, but sexier perhaps in those circles. And
that's the myth is coming through in the same supply pipelines,
(15:04):
So the cocaine is coming through the same supply pipelines
as meth and beeta means obviously cocaine comes from South
America through Mexico, with the same kind of cartels there
bringing it in and supplying it here to the outlaw
motorcycle gangs and many of whom had the origins in Australia,
where cocaine is a much bigger market, so they're kind
of bringing in the cocaine and trying to establish the
(15:26):
market here. It has grown from a small base in
the last few years, and we've definitely seen that more
and more. I mean, you know, again HARKing back showing
my age here, but HARKing back set of fifteen years ago,
cocaine was a very tiny amount and we're now seeing
some quite large shipments coming into New Zealand, often rivaling
(15:46):
the size of some of the meth some of the
meath shipments that we're having though the suspicion is is
that a big chunk of those cocaine shipments coming here
to New Zealand have then been transshipped to the bigger
market in Australia as well. So it's all part of
the same organized crime ecosystem that we're seeing with methban pedimen.
Speaker 6 (16:08):
This type of offending is not new globally. We known
about it, We've seen it before in New Zealand, we've
seen it in this operation and we will see it again.
To defeat this, we've got to look at our engagement
internationally in challenge and sharing that we're doing with our partners,
for example home Land Security Investigations who are looking at
(16:28):
the other end of this investigation, to look at both
ends of this. The overarching commitment we've got in an
ever changing risk environment is this is not just a
law enforcement problem. We are reaching out to our industry
partners to make sure that they have the tools and
the information available to them to also strengthen the supply chain.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
And you've spoken to authorities about this, I mean, what
do they say. They must just feel like they're drowning.
Do we just have to hope, hope that they're just
keeping on top of it all.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Yeah, I mean I think they're definitely. The police and
customers at times probably definitely feel like they're the little
boy with his finger in the dike holding back the dam.
You know, this is a huge problem, and not just
a New Zealand, but around the world. Everyone is on
the same page that really. Whilst law enforcements still needs
to be tackling the high ends, you know, the high
(17:24):
end suppliers, and obviously a lot of money can be
made from them, so tackling those high end suppliers must continue.
But like you know, you take out it, you take
out a crime syndicate, well somebody else will replace them
and sort of fill that vacuum quite quickly. So I
mean everyone's on the same sort of page. Around We
need to be tacking the demand for drugs as well,
(17:44):
and a lot of that comes back to treating meth
using and meth addiction in particular as a health issue,
not necessarily locking people up, but sort of referring them
into health programs to sort of get the help and
the counseling that they need, but also probably far greater
education amongst children basically not just teenagers, but children around
(18:05):
the harm that can be caused by METAM better mean
and particular and really getting into that sort of prevention space,
we would need far more sort of resources being put
into that. At the moment in comparison, it would be
a bit of a drop in the bucket. So yeah,
there's no solution to this. And I don't think there's always
going to be a demand well drugs and there's always
(18:26):
going to be people wanting to make money from supplying them,
so keeping that high in enforcement is crucial. But yeah,
far more money needs to be sort of directed towards
health and education programs, particularly in the smaller rural communities
that you know, further further away from the big centers
where you might have more sort of drug rehab help available.
(18:49):
And it's often the smaller towns that they are the
ones getting the hit the hardest.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Thanks for joining us, Jared Pleasure as always.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
No problem.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You
can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
at enzedherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is
produced by Ethan Sills and Richard Martin, who is also
our sound engineer.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
I'm Chelsea Daniels.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Subscribe to the front page on iHeartRadio or wherever you
get your podcasts
Speaker 1 (19:23):
And tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.
Kiota.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by the.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
New Zealand Herald.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
It'll come as no surprise to anyone when I tell
you that meth is a serious problem in New Zealand.
Wastewater testing results show the consumption of the drug in
New Zealand more than doubled in the second half of
twenty twenty four to the.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Highest levels ever recorded.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
At the same time, the New Zealand Drug Trend Survey
twenty twenty four showed the average price of a gram
of meth declined from five hundred and sixty three dollars
in twenty seventeen eighteen to three hundred and sixty dollars
last year. Meanwhile, wastewater testing in Oportiki shows meThe use
there has halved after police raids on an alleged mungol
(00:58):
mob drug ring. Today Day on the Front Page, Harold
investigative reporter Jared Savage is with us to run through
the state of myth in our country. Jared, Look, it
comes as no surprise when we say myth is popular
in New Zealand, but just how prevalent is it?
Speaker 3 (01:21):
It's ticking in the number one drug of choice in
New Zealand. It has been for quite some time, about
the past twenty twenty five years or so, but you know,
we've really seen a big surge in the consumption of
myth late last year. So the police and ESR scientists
sort of worked together with wastewater testing, so it gives
(01:43):
sort of it's not the only way of working out
how much myth has been consumed, but it is an
objective scientific measure by which you can sort of see
whether the trend is going up or down. And so
for about the past six years they've been running this
program and sort of use just fluctuated sort of between
ten to twenty kilos per week, and there were some
(02:05):
big sort of factors in the ten kilo at the
lower limit that was when New Zealand was a complete
lockdown during early twenty twenty, and then the peak of
twenty kilos it was about a year later when the
world had opened up a little bit there was a
bit more travel and freight coming back and forth. But
of course Auckland was in lockdown at that point and
(02:27):
there was a lot of people similarly using meth during
that time, and it peaked at about twenty kilos, so
between ten and twenty kilos over the past sort of
six years and normally in the middle of that, sort
of hovering around the sort of the fifteen kilo mark,
and that's where it was in June last year, just
over fifteen kilos, and then from July to December last year,
(02:49):
the wastewater testing showed a huge increase, so going from
fifteen kilos each week to thirty kilos each week for
the second half of last year, and it peaked in
October with about thirty nine nearly forty kilos of myth
being consumed each and every week last year. So you know,
it's doubled, it's doubled from the peak, and it's doubled
(03:11):
from what has sort of historically been this sort of
traditional midpoint that we've seen. And it's it's quite an
alarming discovery that we've found through the wastewater data.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
What can we put this down to?
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yeah, so it's hard to sort of explain exactly why
why people are consuming more, and there are lots of
reasons that people would use drugs, but it's really comes
out of simple economics. Talking to various researchers and the
police experts as well. Essentially, the world is a wash
with drugs. There is a huge amount being produced overseas
(03:43):
and that has been since to New Zealand an increasingly
large amount. So the market here is saturated. It's been
flooded with metham betamine and other drugs, but mostly metham betamine,
and that has led to more supply equals cheaper prey
equals more consumption, and that's pretty much what it boils
(04:04):
down to.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah, I was surprised to read somewhere. I think I
showed the average price of a gram of math declined
from about five hundred and sixty odd dollars in twenty
eighteen to three hundred and sixty last year, So that's
going to have something to do with it.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
A So that's right. So that's the you know, that's
that prices come down, and that's those figures come from research.
To my massive University professor Chris Wilkins is the lead
researcher in New Zealand and has done so for twenty years.
And you know they interview anonymously drug users regularly and
that's how they update those figures there. So if it's cheaper,
(04:40):
you can if you're a user of methanbenaman and it's cheaper.
You can therefore use more of it for the you know,
and not spend any more money. And so that's the
cheaper prices have come from the market being flooded and
more myth being used. Chris Wilkins was interviewed with the
story and he said all the metrics going in the
(05:00):
wrong direction on this, and he described it as a
wake up call.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Well, we already know that cartels overseas have been eyeing
up New Zealand for years now. Hey, we've got syndicates
based in Southeast Asia and more recently actually the Mexican cartels.
Just in November, a Columbia led global operation thwarted the
plans of six subs carrying fourteen hundred tons of drugs,
(05:25):
one of which was headed to Australia and New Zealand.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
The Columbian Navy says it's intercepted a Narco submarine bound
for Australia. Official say it's the third such vessel ceased,
indicating a drug smuggling route across the Pacific.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
A coordinated effort in the multinational orient Strategy led to
the seizure of over fourteen hundred tons of narcotic substances.
Of these, two hundred and twenty five tons of cocaine
stood out, which would represent more than five hundred and
seventy four million doses on our streets.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Now that's huge.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
So no cartel would risk the capture of that larger
shipment of drugs if it didn't think the risk was
worth the reward.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Hey, well that's right.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
And I mean in New Zealand for a long time,
we are a small We're a small market, you know,
compared to the rest of the world. But a lot
of these organizations see sort of Australia and New Zealand
together as sort of a one to a one two stop.
So obviously our big brother across the tasmin much bigger market,
but also commands quite high prices. So even though the
prices have come down in New Zealand, it's still high
(06:43):
by comparison internationally. So it's a small market but seen
as lucrative. So that is why we're being targeted by
Mexican CATAUS Southeast Asian organized crime groups who work candy
glove here with sort of organized crime figures here, including
sort of the outlaw motorcycle groups you know, in particular
sort of you know, the common Cero's and some of
(07:03):
those other five x one gangs that have really elevated
that they've got true international connections with these groups overseas,
and that's elevated the supply and that's led to what
we're seeing here with with far greater consumption. Literally the
figure is doubling last year.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Now you mentioned these cartels work hand in hand with
local gangs. Here, tell me a little bit about a Portaki.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Yeah, so a Portoki is a small town in Easter
made plenty and last year sort of garnered a few
headlines because there was quite a big drug bus down
there involving the mongrel mob. And I don't think they
would have been working hand in glove with the cartels,
but somewhere along the supply chain that that myth had
been getting into a poto Key. And like many smaller
(07:47):
real towns around around the country, they are sort of
disproportionately affected by methan betamine. Their sort of average per
capita consumption is often far greater than the national average.
So you know, there's some big headlines last year about
this this raid, these raids, this COVID investigation called Operation
high water in a podoquy, and that led about twenty
odd members of the Mong the Barbarians Chapter and their
(08:09):
associates being being arrested and charged with various drug dealing
and money laundering offenses. Now that's all before the courts
and you know, yet to be proven. But what the
wastewater shows is that after those raids was a dramatic
decrease in methectomy consumption and a podokey. So I think
in the month leading up to the raids it was
(08:29):
around about one hundred and nineteen grands per week was
being consumed in a podige, which is a bear in
mind a small town of about five or six thousand people.
Following month that dropped down to sixty six grands, so
nearly hard So whilst the rest of the country was
going up, a podokey went down following the raids, and
then the next month that went down again to fifty
(08:52):
four grands a week, again while the rest of the
country went up. And so you know that indicates that
sort of strong and fours does have an impact in
terms of in terms of consumption because obviously they're cutting
off the supply or the major supply into the town
because members of the Munger Mob and at the same time,
the police are also kind of being that. They run
(09:13):
a program called the Revilliance to Organize Crime and Community.
So that's it's called ROCK ROCC and that's where like
dedicated police stuff sort of work hand in hand with
community community leaders and NGOs and EWE to sort of
support sort of meth harm production program. So they'll go
and do a big raide, you know, and years gone by,
you know, the police would that was their job. They
(09:35):
would go and do that and sort of walk away
to the to the next, to the next operation. In
this case, they're working in there with with local families
to make sure that you know, they're getting food on
the table, getting their kids to school, getting how it
preferred into the meth amphetames, sort of education programs and
rehab that that kind of work there on the head
(09:55):
of the Rock Program. Infected Jock o Keep said it's
been about seven hundred and twenty thousand and funding been
guarded to sort of keep supporting the work that the
local groups, the local community leaders and ewi's are already doing. So, yeah,
there is a glimmer of hope out there, and of.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Course at the borders as well.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
They're ramping up looking for these importations of drugs. And
when I think about recent history that there've been some
pretty big busts. I'm thinking over the last five six years.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
He oh, absolutely every year there seems to be another
record breaking drug bust. I mean I've been reporting on
this these issues about fifteen years. Back then, one kilo
was quite a quite a big deal. The record back
then and for many years was back in two thousand
and six was ninety five kilos of methamphetamine coming in
(11:00):
from China. That was a huge deal. It was seen
as an outlier for about ten years, and then we
saw five hundred and one kilos sort of wash up
on the beach that famous case Operation Frontier up in Northland.
And then from then, I mean now five hundred kilo
stezias are almost routine. So certainly one hundred kilos is
a routine now and so we're seeing four or five,
(11:23):
six hundred. I think the biggest at the border Caesar
is about seven hundred and thirteen kilos that was hidden
inside maple syrup bottles which had been imported from Canada.
Although it's I guess it's suspected that the myth would
have been transshipped from Mexico up to Canada and then
to New Zealand where it was caught. So we are
seeing huge, huge amounts of you know, busts happening every year,
(11:46):
I guess, And people might look at that and go, oh,
that's great, we're catching more. Well, I think the opposite
is true. We're catching these bigger amounts because more is
being seent here and that sort of you know, and
that has been sort of born out in the wastewater
of data that we seeing where we're stopping more than
ever at the border, but we are consuming way more
than ever, And I guess that shows how saturated the
(12:07):
market really is.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah, and criminals can get really tricky in how they
try and conceal these drugs as well. I remember once
heading to customs and actually seeing the myth that was
concealed inside batteries of these golf carts that were being
imported from the US.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
I think that was about twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
So what are some of the strangest ways you've seen
meth trying to be concealed?
Speaker 1 (12:29):
I mean, maple syrup's got to be one of them.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Oh, look, there. You know, there are so many ways
to conceal myth or other drugs. Honestly, the mind boggles
at how many there have been. It's almost only limited
by your imagination. Probably the best concealment I've seen was
where myth was mixed in with like a concrete like
(12:51):
substance and then poured into an umbrella stand. So they
were being imported in the country as umbrella stands, and
the organized crime Syndicate it had sent people to New
Zealand set up these businesses to import umbrella stands amongst
other furniture, and when it got here, they were then
breaking up the umbrella stands with you know, drills and
(13:13):
hammers and bits and pieces, and then running it through
a fairly complicated sort of process to break it back
down into myth and then being sold. I think it
was about one hundred and eighty kilos or something. It
was a big amount, But that's probably the best concealment
I've seen. But I mean, of course, another trend that
we've seen of later is organized crime groups not even
(13:33):
needing to hide or conceal the myth anymore. You know,
there's been some quite well documented cases of corruption within
the airports and at the port of Auckland, the port
of Turnongar, where you know, these prime groups and outlaw
motorcycle gangs have insiders working there. Cramped insiders who are
you know, are paid to essentially facilitate the smuggling of
(13:55):
the drugs straight in. And often the drugs aren't even hidden,
they're just sort of boxed up normal cardboard boxers. But
if you've got someone in there who can move things
around and get it out of the warehouse before it
can be checked and so on, they're no one is
having a door into the country. And it's often as
simple as that for these groups.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
And we often talk about math, but also I see
that the cocaine has had an uplift in use in
this country. The latest NZED health survey noted there was
an increasing availability of cocaine in New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
It found an increase in the number of users. Two
point four.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Percent of adults used cocaine in the past year. Historically
that figure has been around zero point five percent.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Of the population. So are we seeing more cocaine get
through as well?
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yes, we are in a big proportional increase, but still
small compared to myth but I mean, cocaine has been
on the rise here the last few years. I mean,
I guess it doesn't have quite the same stigma as myth.
That's probably seen as a bit more of a white
collar party drug, but sexier perhaps in those circles. And
that's the myth is coming through in the same supply pipelines,
(15:04):
So the cocaine is coming through the same supply pipelines
as meth and beeta means obviously cocaine comes from South
America through Mexico, with the same kind of cartels there
bringing it in and supplying it here to the outlaw
motorcycle gangs and many of whom had the origins in Australia,
where cocaine is a much bigger market, so they're kind
of bringing in the cocaine and trying to establish the
(15:26):
market here. It has grown from a small base in
the last few years, and we've definitely seen that more
and more. I mean, you know, again HARKing back showing
my age here, but HARKing back set of fifteen years ago,
cocaine was a very tiny amount and we're now seeing
some quite large shipments coming into New Zealand, often rivaling
(15:46):
the size of some of the meth some of the
meath shipments that we're having though the suspicion is is
that a big chunk of those cocaine shipments coming here
to New Zealand have then been transshipped to the bigger
market in Australia as well. So it's all part of
the same organized crime ecosystem that we're seeing with methban pedimen.
Speaker 6 (16:08):
This type of offending is not new globally. We known
about it, We've seen it before in New Zealand, we've
seen it in this operation and we will see it again.
To defeat this, we've got to look at our engagement
internationally in challenge and sharing that we're doing with our partners,
for example home Land Security Investigations who are looking at
(16:28):
the other end of this investigation, to look at both
ends of this. The overarching commitment we've got in an
ever changing risk environment is this is not just a
law enforcement problem. We are reaching out to our industry
partners to make sure that they have the tools and
the information available to them to also strengthen the supply chain.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
And you've spoken to authorities about this, I mean, what
do they say. They must just feel like they're drowning.
Do we just have to hope, hope that they're just
keeping on top of it all.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Yeah, I mean I think they're definitely. The police and
customers at times probably definitely feel like they're the little
boy with his finger in the dike holding back the dam.
You know, this is a huge problem, and not just
a New Zealand, but around the world. Everyone is on
the same page that really. Whilst law enforcements still needs
to be tackling the high ends, you know, the high
(17:24):
end suppliers, and obviously a lot of money can be
made from them, so tackling those high end suppliers must continue.
But like you know, you take out it, you take
out a crime syndicate, well somebody else will replace them
and sort of fill that vacuum quite quickly. So I
mean everyone's on the same sort of page. Around We
need to be tacking the demand for drugs as well,
(17:44):
and a lot of that comes back to treating meth
using and meth addiction in particular as a health issue,
not necessarily locking people up, but sort of referring them
into health programs to sort of get the help and
the counseling that they need, but also probably far greater
education amongst children basically not just teenagers, but children around
(18:05):
the harm that can be caused by METAM better mean
and particular and really getting into that sort of prevention space,
we would need far more sort of resources being put
into that. At the moment in comparison, it would be
a bit of a drop in the bucket. So yeah,
there's no solution to this. And I don't think there's always
going to be a demand well drugs and there's always
(18:26):
going to be people wanting to make money from supplying them,
so keeping that high in enforcement is crucial. But yeah,
far more money needs to be sort of directed towards
health and education programs, particularly in the smaller rural communities
that you know, further further away from the big centers
where you might have more sort of drug rehab help available.
(18:49):
And it's often the smaller towns that they are the
ones getting the hit the hardest.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Thanks for joining us, Jared Pleasure as always.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
No problem.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You
can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
at enzedherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is
produced by Ethan Sills and Richard Martin, who is also
our sound engineer.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
I'm Chelsea Daniels.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Subscribe to the front page on iHeartRadio or wherever you
get your podcasts
Speaker 1 (19:23):
And tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.
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