January 20, 2016

Man stopped at airport with $1.5m of meth in neck pillows

A 49-year-old man was arrested by Customs this morning at Wellington airport after he was found to be carrying approximately 1.5 kilograms of methamphetamine.

The man had travelled from Hong Kong via Sydney and was profiled, questioned, and his baggage searched by Customs officers who located the methamphetamine hidden inside two neck pillows.

This amount of methamphetamine has a street value of around $1.5 million.

Customs Investigations Manager, Maurice O’Brien says this is a good example of our officers using their expertise and experience along with profiling, risk assessment, and intelligence processes to identify the right passenger, and locate and stop drugs crossing our border.

“Our intelligence-led approach has removed another large amount of methamphetamine from the drug supply chain preventing substantial harm to our communities. It is a very good result.”

The man will appear in Wellington District Court today charged with importing class A drugs and possession for supply.

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