New Zealand seizes 713kg meth hidden in maple syrup from Canada

‘It’s kind of sad in some ways that we keep coming and saying we’re getting bigger and bigger seizures’

In this photo provided by the Australian Federal Police a man is taken into custody in Melbourne, Wednesday, 14 June 2023. A drug syndicate that tried to smuggle tons of methamphetamine from Canada to Australia and New Zealand by hiding it in shipments of maple syrup and canola oil has been busted, authorities said Thursday, 15 June 2023 (Australian Federal Police via AP)

More than 700kg methamphetamine packed in maple syrup bottles shipped from Canada to New Zealand.

The international drug operation – said to be the largest at the border – was “upended” by authorities in New Zealand, Australia and Canada. The shipment was intercepted in January this year, said New Zealand police commissioner Andrew Coster in a statement issued on Thursday.

The entire exercise was dubbed “Operation Regis” and was worked on by officials from the New Zealand police, the customs department, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Australian Federal Police and Victoria Police.

“The international drug trade and organised crime groups are creating havoc and harm in communities around the globe, and our best opportunity to disrupt, intercept, and keep our communities safe, is to work collaboratively with other agencies, and other nations,” he said.

“This seizure of nearly three-quarters of a tonne shows the effectiveness of working across borders.”

So far, police have arrested six people, aged between 22 and 45, in connection with the case.

“We’ve seen a surge coming down this way. It’s no great surprise we were alerted earlier this year of a shipment of 713kg of meth that was coming in by ship freight,” Greg Williams, the director of the New Zealand police’s National Organised Crime Group, told the media.

“It’s kind of sad in some ways that we keep coming and saying we’re getting bigger and bigger seizures,” he was quoted as saying by NZHerald.

All six of those arrested are set to appear before the North Shore and Auckland district courts.

Police estimate that the drugs would have caused close to $486m worth of “immense” social harm.

“Had this shipment been distributed across New Zealand it would have caused immense harm to the vulnerable communities these criminal groups were preying upon,” Mr Coster said.

New Zealand customs comptroller Christine Stevenson told local media that they have seen an increase in large-scale drug smuggling attempts at the border.

“It points to the determination of these criminals to peddle their harm in our communities for their own personal wealth and at the expense of our communities, regardless of the damage to social, health and wider economic well-being,” she said.

“Our message to transnational organised crime is that we are aware of what they are doing, how they are doing it, and we will use the combined resources of New Zealand Customs and our partner agencies here in New Zealand and around the world to stop them and hit the profits they try to extract from our communities and our economy.”