Status: 02/08/2023 10:41 a.m
New Zealand authorities have seized more than three tonnes of cocaine floating in the Pacific Ocean off the island nation. The drugs would have fetched hundreds of millions of dollars on the black market.
New Zealand police have landed their biggest strike yet against drug smuggling when they discovered 3.5 tons of cocaine floating in water in a remote part of the Pacific. The drug was presumably stored there by a South American drug syndicate for onward transport to Australia, New Zealand police chief Andrew Coster said on Wednesday.
The discovery of drugs off the coast of New Zealand is considered the authorities’ biggest attack on organized crime.
Image: AP
There were initially no arrests, but Coster spoke of a serious blow to drug crime. According to him, the black market value of the cocaine is around 500 million New Zealand dollars. Converted, the sum corresponds to around 287 million euros.
“We believe there is enough cocaine to supply the Australian market for around a year and it’s more than New Zealand will use in 30 years,” he said. The find is undoubtedly a serious financial blow to South American manufacturers, right down to the product’s distributors, Coster noted.
Accidental drug discovery
The cocaine was dropped in 81 packets at the transit point and later discovered by a New Zealand Navy ship. The ship had only recently been stationed in the waters, presumably the smugglers did not count on their presence. According to Coster, in Operation Hydros, which began in December, police, customs and the military were working with international partners to monitor the movement of suspicious vessels.
The seizure is a good example of how far organized crime is going in its global drug trade, said Bill Perry, a customs spokesman. “It shows that in this part of the world we are not exempt from organized criminal drug smuggling on a large scale.”