Organised criminals breaking into ports to retrieve smuggled drugs

New Zealand’s ports are under growing pressure as organised criminal networks carry out increasingly brazen break-ins to retrieve smuggled drugs, prompting urgent calls for tighter security and tougher vetting of port workers.

Customs data released to 1News shows security breaches at several of the country’s ports, including broken perimeter fences, unauthorised entry into container and cruise ship terminals, and even small boats infiltrating ports by sea.

Paul Campbell, Customs Group Manager Maritime, said the operations are calculated and well organised.

“They’re cunning, they often plan. They are generally accessing late into the night and in the early hours of the morning,” Campbell said.

Since December 2023, Customs has recorded 13 incidents of unauthorised entry, break-ins or security breaches at ports and Customs Controlled Areas (CCAs) in relation to illicit goods - mostly at the Port of Tauranga, but also in Wellington and Christchurch.

Campbell revealed additional cases not reported in those figures, including a breach in Nelson, but did not know specific numbers.

When damaged containers are found at ports, Customs staff usually conclude drugs were hidden inside, Campbell said.

“We’ve seen a slow but significant increase in the number of port attacks,” he said.

“They are going through the security fences. We’ve had experience of offenders or suspects being in vessels, so small craft on the seaward side of ports.”

Campbell highlighted the ongoing issue of trusted insiders - people working inside ports who use their access to facilitate criminal activity.

The latest figures show 1964kg of methamphetamine, 670kg of cocaine, and 129kg of MDMA has been seized at the border this year.

“The concealment methods are as broad as your imagination,” Campbell said.

Organised crime expert and member of the government’s advisory group on transnational, serious and organised crime (TSOC), Jarrod Gilbert, said New Zealand’s port security is lagging far behind international standards.

“We are dreadfully behind the eight ball in this,” he said.

“We’re the only Five Eyes country not to have a national strategy around it. And I think it is a gaping hole - and it’s a hole that is creating porous borders that transnational organised crime groups are flowing through, and that has devastating consequences.”

Gilbert said New Zealand was being deliberately targeted.

“International organised crime groups don’t care where the money comes from - they just want the money. If you can target countries that are not as well protected, that’s exactly where you’re going,” he said. “If we look weak, it invites this kind of activity - and we are weak.”

Port security is jointly managed by Customs, Maritime New Zealand and port operators - but the responsibilities of each entity can be “ambiguous”, according to a briefing note to Customs Minister Casey Costello.

The document, released to 1News under the Official Information Act, also highlights that while each port has an approved security plan, there is no national standard.

It warns that a lack of consistency and employee vetting is “inadequate to deal with the significant and evolving TSOC risks, particularly trusted insiders”.

As part of its newly announced methamphetamine action plan, Associate Transport Minister James Meager said officials were consulting with port operators on tighter security measures.

“If you look at how we treat our airports compared to our seaports, there’s a disparity there,” Meager said.

“We’re looking at what we can do in terms of background checks on workers, strengthening access to the ports, and unifying the security systems.”

Having a single identification card for people working in and around ports was another option being looked at.

Meager added port operators have raised concerns about their limited powers to vet third-party contractors.

“They have limited regulatory tools and laws that they can enforce in order to make sure that the people who are working on their ports are of good character and don't have links to the criminal underworld,” he said.

“They’ve asked for assistance in that area, and we’re keen to help strengthen that.”