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Drug find: 713 kilograms of chrystal meth worth 250 million New Zealand dollars
Photo: Police New Zealand / Northland Police / DPA
The find was part of a larger shipment of methamphetamine destined for the Australasian market, said Andrew Coster, police chief of the New Zealand Police. Shipments of the drug known as crystal meth were also seized in Melbourne, Australia, where three tons of methamphetamine were discovered in a shipment of 18 pallets of rapeseed oil from Canada.
The bags found in New Zealand would have been sold in around 35 million individual doses on the street for about 250 million New Zealand dollars (almost 143 million euros), police estimated. The authorities also put the "social damage" at 800 million New Zealand dollars (456 million euros) – an estimated cost to society from the use of harmful drugs.
"International drug trafficking and organized crime are wreaking havoc and damage to communities around the world," Coster said. The best way to combat this lies in cross-border cooperation, and the seizure of three-quarters of a ton of drugs proves how effectively this can work.
According to Coster, this is the largest discovery of methamphetamine in New Zealand to date. Six arrested men are now facing charges in New Zealand courts.
ibr/dpa