A man who concealed 20 kilograms of methamphetamine in green tea packets to smuggle it into New Zealand has been jailed for more than seven years.
The 36-year-old foreign national was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison at the Manukau District Court after pleading guilty to a charge of importing a class A controlled drug.
He was busted at Auckland Airport in July last year after hopping off a flight from Bali.
While being processed, he was identified for a baggage search. Officers found no personal items in his luggage – instead, they found vacuum-sealed green tea packets.
The packets were examined and found to contain a white crystalline substance that tested positive for methamphetamine.
The man was a first-time visitor in the country, and will now spend the next few years in a New Zealand prison.
“That’s the reality people face when having anything to do with illicit drugs, or doing the footwork for organised criminal groups,” Customs’ Auckland Airport manager, Paul Williams, said.
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