Bungled boat trip leads New Zealand police to big drug haul

Police find half a ton of amphetamines in RV.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand // When three strange men went round offering wads of cash in exchange for help in launching a boat from a remote beach in New Zealand, the locals were naturally suspicious. Rightly so, as it turned out. When police caught up with the threesome, they found nearly half a ton of methamphetamines stashed away in their vehicle — the biggest haul of the drug ever found in New Zealand.

The drugs were in dozens of small plastic bags and mesh sacks stuffed into suitcases. But that wasn’t all. Police also retrieved a hand-held GPS containing co-ordinates which led to another stash of drugs buried in sand dunes.

Police Superintendent Russell Le Prou said at least six local people in Kaitaia, at the northern tip of New Zealand, had alerted the police to three men who were driving a Toyota SUV and a camper van and offering large sums of money to help them launch a small boat from Ninety Mile Beach.

Officers found the boat abandoned on the sands on Sunday with some mesh bags on it and then saw the Toyota drive past. They gave chase and pulled the vehicle over at a nearby golf course and arrested two men, aged 31 and 26. A few hours later, police spotted the camper van driving through a nearby town and arrested the 19-year-old driver. Inside they found 448 kilos of methamphetamines, more than the amount seized during the whole of 2015.

Examination of the GPS in the vehicle revealed a set of co-ordinates which led to a spot on the sand dunes on Ninety Mile Beach, close to where the smugglers’ boat. had been abandoned. Buried in the sand were another 46 kilos of methamphetamines.

Police also seized another boat from a local address which is believed to be involved in the smuggling operation.

Many of the bags showed signs of exposure to salt water. “You may infer from that it’s possibly been left out at sea for a while and picked up by that smaller boat,” said Supt Le Prou.

New Zealand has one of the highest levels of amphetamine use in the world, according to the United Nations world Drug Report of 2011.

“Wherever this methamphetamine was headed it was going to cause harm and it’s thanks to the Kaitaia community who were not going to tolerate this, that we’ve managed to stop harm from this massive haul.”

The three suspects appeared in Kaitaia district court on Tuesday charged with importing Class A drugs and possession of a Class A drug with intent to supply.

* Associated Press