Previous successful raids have opened the way for more raids to be launched. Laying hands on drug traffickers becomes easier when the method of drug penetration into the country is revealed. The New Zealand customs officials gave a hint concerning the penetration of suspicious drugs through the country’s border.
The authorities, therefore, conducted a nationwide raid into the Darknet leading to the seizure of psychoactive drugs and the arrest of a 48-year-old man from Gleneden. The arrested suspect will appear before the Waitakere District Court on the charges of possessing firearm and ammunition as well as possessing a class A drug.
A report says that a sample of the psychoactive substances has been sent to the lab for analysis. The raid which lasted for months led to the arrest of 12, and a bunch of narcotic was also seized. The suspects will, therefore, appear before the Auckland, Waitakere and North Shore District Courts.
New Zealand has a serious loophole at its borders, and the news that “drugs are bought through the Darknet and are sent through the borders” is not a new one. In 2016, the custom intercepted a lot of drugs and made a record haul of drugs in the country. In that year, at least 413kg of methamphetamine and almost 1.1 tonnes of its precursors were seized at the New Zealand borders.
In 2015, 176kg of meth, 200kg of ephedrine, 35kg of cocaine and 20kg of meth in false-sided suitcases were intercepted at the borders. In fact, it was revealed that most the illicit drugs are sent in fake packages just to create a deceptive impression of what they really are. Authorities confirmed that “4,000 interceptions, totaling 1.86 tonnes, 51 liters and over 200,000 other forms in pills, tabs and the like” were made at the border.
In the recent raid, over 10kg of cannabis was found. It was reported that the psychoactive substances found could be used to manufacture 150kg synthetic cannabis.
Before the raid was conducted, the Waitemata Police in Rodney issued a search warrant leading to the seizure of 2kg of AMB-Fubinaca and 11kg of synthetic cannabis. Search warrants were issued in several places which included the Auckland suburbs of Henderson, Gleneden and Red Beach. Two other search warrants were issued in the Palmerston North leading to the seizure of four firearms.
It looks like the price of drugs in the New Zealand encourages drug traffickers to smuggle their drugs into the country to sell them at higher prices. This follows a basic economic rule: “when the price of goods and services increases, supply increases.” The drugs smuggled into
the country were very high last year.
Maurice O’Brien, the Investigations manager as at last year, in his view on the higher intercepted drugs at the country’s border, said: “there’s no doubt that criminals are trying harder to smuggle drugs into New Zealand and are being far more sophisticated. I can tell you that customs is also working harder and smarter. New Zealand is no different from the rest of the world, in that the smuggling of drugs around the globe in international, it’s transnational and it has no respect for any of our borders.”
He added: “The challenge for New Zealand is that the price of our methamphetamine and MDMA is a lot higher than a lot of other economies around the world. For this reason, it makes New Zealand quite an attractive and lucrative business proposition for some of these transnational syndicates.”
The arrests of the drug traffickers do not seem to put any fear down the spine of the remaining drug traffickers. The anonymity of the Darknet marketplace has definitely won their hearts and minds.
The police have also assured that they will try their possible best to hold the psychoactive substance manufacturers responsible.
“This is only the tipping point and police are continuing to conduct enquiries around psychoactive substances. We are confident that further arrests will come as we continue to investigate this serious issue,” said the authorities.
The series of the raid is also an indication that the custom has partnered with formidable agencies to raid and arrest all drug traffickers. Wei-Jiat Tan, the Customs intelligence manager said to reporters about the drugs smuggled into the country: “Chemical properties of psychoactive drugs are ever evolving and potentially lethal – especially if amateurs are producing them. These drugs can be life-threatening for users, who have no way of knowing what they’re really taking. It’s not worth the risk.”
If customs officials all over the world can cooperate with the police, drug smuggling could be brought under control. New Zealand has improved in intercepting mailed substances recently.
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