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July 30, 2025 • 15 mins

You might look on Facebook marketplace for a new couch, a lamp, a rug.

But, what about class A drugs? Or how about a ghost gun?

A Herald investigation has revealed at least 56 listings were circulating on the site offering magic mushrooms, cannabis, and in one case LSD across the North Island and top of the south.

And that could just be the tip of the iceberg of illicit sales on social media.

So how do we get on top of this?

NZ Herald senior investigative reporter Michael Morrah has been looking into this, and joins us today on The Front Page.

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
Editor/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 (00:05):
Kielda.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. You might
look on Facebook Marketplace for a new couch, a lamp,
a rug, but what about Class A drugs or how
about a ghost gun. Harold investigation has revealed at least

(00:29):
fifty six listings were circulating on the site offering magic mushrooms,
cannabis and in one case LSD across the North Island
and top of the South and that could be just
the tip of the iceberg of illicit sales on social media.
So how do we get on top of this? Nsaid

(00:49):
herold's senior investigative reporter Michael Morat has been looking into
this and joins us today on the front Page. Michael,
how did this first capture your attention?

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Well, I was contacted by a bay of plenty man
who essentially said there are multiple listings on Facebook Marketplace
for drugs and these listings then linked to encrypted Telegram accounts.
I contacted some of these dealers on Facebook Marketplace and

(01:27):
you'd go to the encrypted telegram account and then from
the outset, from what it looked like, it was just
magic mushrooms being sold, but when you went to the
Telegram account and asked for a full menu that you
were then supplied with a list of many other A
class drugs.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
It's interesting that they've chosen to advertise mushrooms, but that's
actually a Class A drug in itself, isn't it.

Speaker 4 (01:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
I think it's potentially because those peddling these drugs think
that mushrooms is a more innocuous term than perhaps using
cocaine or methanphetamine or whatever else.

Speaker 4 (02:07):
But it seems clear that the ad.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
For mushrooms is just a gateway to then offer the
visitor any other form of drugs that they want. Now,
I was unable to verify whether in fact these drugs
could indeed be purchased, but the very fact that these
are advertised on Facebook Marketplace, a very very open platform,

(02:34):
would suggest that if you indeed were a legitimate seller,
you could do this because it exposes a loophole. Regardless
of it whether these people on marketplace are scammers or
legitimate sellers of Class A drugs, it shows that on
Facebook Marketplace you can do it and get away with it.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
Right.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
So what do these listings actually say they've got like mushrooms,
and then it has what.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
I've seen that included drugs for sale, including pictures, images
of magic mushrooms, cannabis, tabs of LEAs d gummies for
sale as well. And then when you link to the
Telegram account, you're supplied with full menu of any type

(03:21):
of drug you can imagine, including ayahuasca, masculine cocaine, MDMA,
et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Wow, and so Telegram, I'm assuming they use that because
it's encrypted, one of.

Speaker 4 (03:35):
Those absolutely yeah. Encrypted.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
So, like I say, I believe that these very open
advertisements for mushrooms are essentially to get lots of eyes
onto a product, and a legal product, to then lead
the visitor to this other menu and the supply of
other drugs.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
It took me all of about a minute this morning
to find one of these ads on Facebook marketplace that
you told me about, and it didn't take very much
like snooping as well. Then I saw another one. Then
I scrolled down a little further and I think I
counted up to like forty of them, and all of
them listed either today, yesterday, within the last couple of days.
I mean, is it just a case of whack a

(04:16):
mole out there.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
I think so, and I mean that's what really surprised
me about this situation. I mean, you know, police and
other authorities have said for some time that we're seeing
an increasing number of drug sales on social media. But
what surprised me about this was just how open and
blatant the dealers were being. And when I initially was

(04:40):
reviewing Facebook Marketplace, I counted a total of fifty six
different listings from the far North right down to the
Tasmin region, Nelson and picton, all saying we've got various
drugs available and you can pick them up or we
can deliver. So I was pretty surprised by that. And

(05:01):
of course I got in touch with Meta, which is
the owner of Facebook, and after sending several links to
them and screenshots, they said they would then act to
remove those illegal accounts.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Who else have you spoken to about this? I mean,
I can't imagine the New Zealand Drug Foundation would be
too happy about it.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
They do think there are obvious inherent risks with this.
They talk about the risk with magic mushrooms, for example,
is in the CEO Sarah Halm's words, the risk is
identification of the mushroom. Right, if you get the wrong
one and you don't know what it is, that can

(05:44):
be very risky. But in general, the active ingredient in
magic mushrooms is not something, she says, that could have
fatal consequences. But she says the other issue with Marketplace,
of course, is that it exposes people, including young people
who go on to these sites to material that they
otherwise would not be exposed to. That is one of

(06:06):
the concerns. The other key concern of the Drug Foundation,
of course, is that they are an entity that is
set up to promote and give information about drug harm reduction.
That is one of their core things. You know, you
see them talking about drug testing at festivals and promoting
information about new and emerging drugs if they're you know,

(06:27):
dangerous or lethal to put that information out on social media.
Some of the information they are promoting is funded by
the Ministry of Health, by Health New Zealand. And what
we know is that surprisingly some of their drug harm
reduction messaging is being blocked by Meta because they flag
it as problematic. And that is, in Sarah Helm's words,

(06:51):
from the Drug Foundation, ironic considering that you have dealers
supposedly openly promoting the sale of drugs online.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Isn't that incredible? I mean, I suppose if you type
in I'm going to sell a gram of cocaine, it'll
it'll pop up with it with a flag being like, oh,
no cocaine, but mushrooms. I guess maybe a word that
isn't it is more innocuous. I suppose maybe that's.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
Quite well, that's right, And I mean, my original source
for this story said that he was really frustrated Worth Meta,
the owner of Facebook, because he reported dozens and dozens
of these listings over at the course of several weeks.
So you can go to the listings and click on
little three dots and go down and report this as

(07:38):
a dangerous or problematic listing, and what happened he says,
absolutely nothing. So of course, when I contacted Meta, perhaps
because they were risks, they risked being embarrassed by a journalist,
they said they were taken taking action to remove some
of these listings. But the interesting thing is you point
out is, as you have discovered this morning, these listings

(08:00):
are still up there.

Speaker 4 (08:01):
It does raise a.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
Question as to whether Meta is really prioritizing the detection
and removal of illegal drugs on its websites, or whether
it lets them slip because it drives traffic and ultimately profits.

Speaker 5 (08:22):
As far as drug use, I don't judge anyone, but
you know, like it has to be off social media.
It's got to get off social media.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
Why do you say that, Well, you know, there's a
lot of kids.

Speaker 5 (08:38):
On social media. There's a lot of impressionable people on
social media. There are a lot of people who have
never used an iconic in their life. Do we really
want to be turning people who have never touched drugs
into addicts because they're curious and it's suddenly easily accessible.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Well, you've actually met a dealer. Hey, what did they
say about this?

Speaker 3 (09:04):
Yeah, So, following that initial story that we did on
the Facebook marketplace, I've been in touch with a former
dealer who used meta products to sell drugs, including cannabis, LSD, MDMA.
I have verified through the courts that he has a

(09:26):
whole series of criminal convictions for drugs, and he says
that what most of the public won't be aware of
is that there is so much available now on social media,
and it is any drug you can think of, if
you want it, it's out there and it's available, and

(09:49):
did he say something like because you mentioned before they
offered delivery as well.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
It's like an uber for drugs.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
Well, in his words, it's as easy as ordering a pizza.
It is, you know, uber for drugs. He says that
in his experience, he felt bulletproof when he was using
private groups on Facebook Messenger. That's the platform he used,
not Marketplace. He was a bit more stealthy than that.
He used private groups on Facebook Messenger to deal his drugs,

(10:19):
but he said he felt bulletproof because at no stage
did his accounts ever get disabled. At no stage did
he believe police or anyone else could get into those groups,
because he oversaw the membership of those groups.

Speaker 4 (10:33):
So he felt completely safe.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
And he has said that he is not aware of
any other groups, of which are many around the country
that are selling illegal products. He's not aware of any
of those groups being removed either.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
It's not just drugs, is it? Though? Can you get
things like other nefarious items on Facebook Marketplace?

Speaker 3 (10:58):
Well, according to my content the former drug dealer, who
says he's now out of the game, you can you
can get firearms, including what he says is a hugely
popular drive towards three D printed guns. Now, these weapons
you may have heard about them.

Speaker 4 (11:17):
Before.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
You get a blueprint, it goes into a printer and
you can create parts made from plastic that are capable
of firing real rounds. We know because I've done reports
in the past few months about police raising the alarm
about a ramping up of three D manufactured firearms in

(11:41):
New Zealand and those guns being linked to organized crime.
There are documented cases. My colleague Jared Savage has done
extensive reporting on this as well, where criminals, including in
twenty twenty three or five h one DEPORTI was arrested
by police for manufacturing three D printed pistols. I have
been unable to verify if in fact there are legitimate

(12:05):
sellers of three D guns on social media, but my
source says absolutely there are more and more of these
firearms groups popping up, he says, on social media where
they show images and video of three D printed guns
and offer them for sale.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
Well, and do we call them ghost guns as well?
Is that another here?

Speaker 4 (12:28):
Yeah, I mean it's just another term.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
Essentially, a ghost gun is anything that a firearm that
is privately manufactured that does not have a serial number,
and therefore is untraceable.

Speaker 4 (12:39):
So a ghost gun could be.

Speaker 3 (12:41):
Several parts of real firearms which are put together to
manufacture something that works, or a ghost gun could be
three D printed guns that can't be traced.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
That's the sort of the stuff that really puts pressure
on organizations that aren't doing the right thing, and certainly
Minister or Justice, I'll be asking some tough questions about
what hows is happening, what's going on ultimately, you know,
decisions around prosecution are things for police and authorities to make.
An icarnt as a politician interfere with that, but you know,

(13:14):
on the surface of it, it's outrageous.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
So have you heard from police or even ministers responsible
at all.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
Well, look, I've spoken to police briefly and they have
sent me a statement about the illegal sales in general,
and they are saying that indeed it is an increasing issue,
basically putting this down to more digital use in our
worlds that illegal sales are increasing. They're also saying that

(13:45):
the use of encrypted apps does make it more difficult
for police to investigate because they're end to end encrypted
and saying that police are urging anyone in the public
who becomes aware of suspicious material being sold on social
media to get into much because they say that they
will investigate. I interviewed last week on Herald Now the

(14:06):
Justice Minnicipaul Goldsmith about the Facebook marketplace advertisements, the apparent
in action from Meta according to my contact in the
Bay of Plenty, and he said it was, on the
face of it, outrageous and that he would be talking
to Meta about this and seeking an explanation and asking,

(14:27):
in his words, some hard questions of why this multi
billion dollar tech company is not doing a better job
of restricting the sales of illegal drugs.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
It is pretty hard to get Meta to do anything, though,
isn't it.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
Well, look, I don't work for Meta, but certainly from
my experience and when I inquired with Meta as to
why they had removed some listings when Eye contacted them,
but why they did nothing when you know, my contact
Joe Blogs down in the Bay of Play reported dozens

(15:01):
of these. They said, we're not sure why this didn't
result in anything happening. We're looking into that. That's all
I can really explain that they have no real explanation
for why they did not act on this issue until
I got in touch.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
Thanks for joining us, Michael.

Speaker 4 (15:17):
Pleasure, thank you.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You
can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
at enzidherld dot co dot mz. The Front Page is
produced by Ethan Sills and Richard Martin, who is also
our editor. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to the Front Page
on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and tune

(15:45):
in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.
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