{"id":11635,"date":"2024-10-09T08:48:11","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T19:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=11635"},"modified":"2024-10-09T08:50:37","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T19:50:37","slug":"police-and-customs-discover-515kg-of-meth-inside-steel-beams-in-one-of-nzs-largest-drug-busts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=11635","title":{"rendered":"Police and Customs discover 515kg of meth inside steel beams in one of NZ\u2019s largest drug busts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police and Customs found 515kg of methamphetamine inside these steel beams imported from the United States in September 2024. Five men, aged between 31 and 51, were arrested and charged with drug offences following Operation Girder.<\/p>\n

The consignment was tracked to a rural Waikato address which was raided on Friday and led to five men appearing in the Auckland District Court on drug import and supply charges.<\/p>\n

One was charged with unlawful possession of firearms after a military-style semi automatic rifle and ammunition were recovered.<\/p>\n

Two other men had flown in from Australia and were in the process of \u201cdeconstructing\u201d the steel beams when they were arrested, according to police.<\/p>\n

Detective Inspector Colin Parmenter said the seizure is a serious disruption to the wider drug market operating within New Zealand.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe significant amount seized in this operation is another demonstration of the Police and Customs partnership and commitment to the disruption and dismantling of transnational organised drug networks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s estimated that this shipment would have gone on to produce 25.7 million individual doses of this destructive drug, and preventing this harm is a key motivation for our staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

The investigation was ongoing and Parmenter did not rule out making further arrests.<\/p>\n

Police would continue to focus on organised criminal groups looking to profit from commercial drug offending, Parmenter said.<\/p>\n

The seizure of 515kg of meth was also hailed as a win for Customs.<\/p>\n

\u201cCustoms\u2019 intelligence gathering and targeting have played a critical role in detecting this smuggling attempt and identifying people responsible,\u201d said Terry Brown, the Customs group manager in charge of intelligence, investigations and enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe method and scale of this smuggling operation clearly illustrate the amount of efforts organised crime groups are willing to go to but our seizure and the arrests Police have made equally show the skill and determination investigations and enforcement teams will apply to detect, disrupt and dismantle these criminal efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 515kg of methamphetamine seized in Operation Girder is the third-largest importation found at New Zealand\u2019s border and the latest in a disturbing upward trend.<\/p>\n

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One of the men arrested in Operation Girder was also charged with the illegal possession of a military-style firearm and ammunition. Photo \/ NZ PoliceSOURCE NZ HERALD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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Police and Customs found 515kg of methamphetamine inside these steel beams imported from the United States in September 2024. Five men, aged between 31 and 51, were arrested and charged with drug offences following Operation Girder. The consignment was tracked to a rural Waikato address which was raided on Friday and led to five men […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11635"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11638,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11635\/revisions\/11638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}