A further 14 people, including baggage handlers and King Cobra gang members, have on Wednesday morning been charged over drug smuggling at New Zealand’s borders.
It comes after police executed 19 search warrants across Auckland, leading to the arrests, police said in a statement.
Assets worth $3 million - including two Auckland properties, five vehicles, thousands of dollars in cash and small quantities of methamphetamine - were also seized as part of the ongoing joint operation by police and Customs, police said.
Around 45kgs in meth and three firearms have also been seized.
The group - involving six Air New Zealand baggage handlers, three King Cobra gang members and two associates - are alleged to have smuggled drugs between Los Angeles and New Zealand from the beginning of this year through baggage handlers at Auckland International Airport.
Those charged include baggage handlers and King Cobra gang members. (Source: 1News)
Unchecked items were allegedly placed in the cargo holds of aircraft flying to Auckland before being removed from the aircraft, where the alleged offenders would bypass security and and take the drugs out of the airport, police said.
They allegedly conspired to import more than 100kgs of methamphetamine, with a street value of $124 million, into the country before their arrests.
Martin Julian Pritchard is one of the 14 arrested in the second tranche of the joint investigation by police and customs into smuggling methamphetamine across the border.
Pritchard, along with the other 13 defendants, appeared at the Auckland District Court on Wednesday afternoon for a raft of charges relating to importation, supply and possession of meth.
Pritchard was arrested in November for the same investigation, but has had new charges laid against him.
Among the many bail conditions Judge Evangelos Thomas handed out to the accused, was to stay at least one kilometre away from Auckland Airport, not contact any employees of the airport, must not use an encrypted phone, must not contact any member of the King Cobra gang, must surrender their passports and not apply for new ones.
The second appearances for the defendants is January 24, 2022.
In November, 14 people were charged - made up of 12 males and two females, aged between 18-43 - in an operation targetting methamphetamine smuggling into New Zealand.
Over the course of the year, this group allegedly conspired to smuggle close to 500kg of methamphetamine into the country.
The ongoing investigation has also uncovered that the baggage handlers allegedly received over 250kg of methamphetamine smuggled into New Zealand over the 10 months to November.
The group targeted were also allegedly involved in the failed smuggling attempt of 200kg of methamphetamine that was intercepted at the Malaysian border in October 2021, which was destined for New Zealand. Four people were arrested in Malaysia in the days after the incident.
“I’d like to highlight the very good work that Customs and police investigators have done in identifying vulnerabilities at our border," Detective Inspector Paul Newman said in a media conference.
“We have been working closely with partners – in this case, Air New Zealand – who have been supplying us information and assisting the inquiry in order to achieve the results that we have today.
“This type of offending is obviously highly concerning – not only because of the harm the drugs are doing in our community, but also because the ability to place unchecked items into aircraft and take them out of aircraft, bypassing security, threatens the integrity and security of air travel.”
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