$12.6 Million in Cocaine Discovered Hidden in Auckland Shipping Container

The 36kg worth of cocaine seized was worth about $12.6 million. Photo / NZ Police

Police have uncovered 36 kilograms of cocaine worth an estimated $12.6 million after it was discovered inside a shipping container delivered to an Auckland business.

Detective Senior Sergeant Jason Hunt said workers found the drugs while unloading legitimate goods that had arrived from Brazil.

“It was in bags on the top of the legitimate product in the container,” Hunt said. Staff immediately alerted police, leading to the National Organised Crime Group seizing the shipment.

The cocaine was found in plastic bags, on top of legitimate product in the container. Photo / NZ Police

“This is a prime example of a ‘rip on’ or ‘rip off’ importation to try and sneak drugs into New Zealand,” Hunt explained. “It’s a common method used by criminal groups where they exploit the bona-fide details of a legitimate company’s import.”

An investigation is underway to track down the syndicate responsible, with police working alongside international law enforcement agencies.

“I acknowledge the staff for doing the right thing and it’s great to have this product seized before it reached New Zealand communities,” Hunt said. “For context, removing this amount of cocaine from the market may have prevented up to $13m worth of social harm to the country.”

The bust follows a string of large cocaine seizures in recent months. Less than a month earlier, Customs officers at the Port of Tauranga intercepted a duffel bag hidden among cargo that contained 21 bricks of cocaine worth around $7.3 million. The packages were branded with the words “VESPA,” a “mouse logo,” and wrapped in tape labeled “fragile.”

In July, authorities discovered another 150 kilograms of cocaine — valued at $58.2 million — inside a container shipped from Jamaica. Those bricks were marked with an “X,” the words “good luck,” and a coat of arms featuring the Latin phrase Custodi Civatatem Domine, meaning “Guard the city, O Lord.”