News stories & media releases

​The New Zealand Customs Service has recently had three officers deployed with Timor-Leste Customs in a capacity building operation to help to implement a robust goods clearance process.

​In late October, the second Indicators and Progress report on the Government’s plan to fight methamphetamine (‘P’) was released by the Prime Minister’s office.

The report shows a number of positive steps in reducing the availability of ‘P’ with both the Police and Customs continuing to seize high levels of pseudoephedrine and methamphetamine.

​Minister of Customs Maurice Williamson travelled to China in October to meet his Chinese counterpart, Minister Sheng Guangzu.

Following their meeting in Beijing, both Ministers signed a statement of cooperation to combat the smuggling of pharmaceutical products used to manufacture methamphetamine (‘P’).

On Wednesday, 17 November, the Prime Minister, Rt Hon John Key officially opened the new Customhouse in Wellington’s Harbour Quays precinct — returning Customs to its traditional home on the port.

On Wednesday 10 November, officials from across government, including the Ministers of Customs, Police/Corrections, and Immigration all came together to consider the national response to the arrival in New Zealand’s territorial waters of a suspected illegal entry vessel carrying 497 potential illegal immigrants seeking asylum. 

On Friday, 19 November, a new maritime command and control system, designed to further improve New Zealand’s border security, was launched in Wellington. 

A woman carrying 40 pellets of crystal methamphetamine ('P') inside her body in an attempt to smuggle it through Auckland Airport, is now in custody after New Zealand Customs stopped and searched her.  

Since September last year, New Zealand Customs has caught seven ‘swallowers’ carrying drugs internally, including cocaine, methamphetamine, and opium. The dramatic increase in this method of transportation appears to be driven by the activities of several transnational criminal networks.   

​A man who downloaded thousands of objectionable images of children has been arrested and charged with importation after a New Zealand Customs Service investigation.

The man, a 52-year-old New Zealand resident, was investigated after information from the Department of Internal Affairs showed that a New Zealand based IP address had been used to access and download material from an overseas based website containing child abuse images. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

​On 22 February 2011, the New Zealand city of Christchurch and the surrounding area were struck by an earthquake that caused severe damage and tragic casualties.  

​A group of ten Malaysian drug couriers carrying crystal methamphetamine (P) in their shoes were caught by Customs officers at Auckland Airport.

​New Zealand Customs will be undertaking a live exercise in Auckland from 9–12 May to test its operational response procedures to illicit activities at the border. The exercise will present a realistic scenario requiring both a New Zealand and Australian response to a simulated threat at our borders.

Two German men who admitted travelling to New Zealand to steal rare native geckos have been jailed. Dieter Ernst, 56 and Thorsten Richartz, 47, were sentenced to four and a half months jail in the Dunedin District Court last Friday after they pleaded guilty to separate charges of hunting protected wildlife and possessing four rare jewelled geckos.

In the first quarter of this year Customs has made 220 interceptions of pseudoephedrine or ephedrine with a potential yield of between 48 and 67 kilograms of methamphetamine (‘P’) removing in the vicinity of $27 million dollars of potential harm from New Zealand.

​Budget 2011 includes an extra $3.5 million in operational funding for SmartGate, Customs Minister Maurice Williamson says.  The Budget also provides $3.4 million in capital spending for 2011/12.

​A man who smuggled hundreds of movie and still images showing children as young as two-years-old being sexually abused was sentenced in the Hamilton District Court last week to one year and 11 months imprisonment after a New Zealand Customs Service investigation.  

​Internal smuggling is a polite name for it – “swallowers” is more descriptive. In the last 18-months New Zealand Customs has caught ten of these desperate drug ‘mules’ trying to bring a range of narcotics into the country, inside themselves.

The latest, at Auckland Airport over the weekend, saw a Polish national held in custody while he ‘passed’ 74 plastic pellets containing a total of 370 grams of crystal methamphetamine worth between $220,000 and $370,000 on the street.

​A joint border management system (JBMS) designed to significantly improve border processing for New Zealand traders and travellers, and to make border agencies more efficient, will be the result of a contract signed today by New Zealand Customs and information technology provider, IBM.

​An agreement between New Zealand and the Republic of Korea will bring significant benefits to New Zealand exporters, Customs Minister Maurice Williamson said today. 

The signing of a mutual recognition agreement (MRA) between the countries customs services allows New Zealand’s secure export scheme members (SES) to be treated as the equivalent to Korea’s authorised economic operator (AEO) members.

​Customs has completed a second time release study (TRS). A TRS is a measurement tool developed and endorsed by the World Customs Organization (WCO). A TRS measures the time taken by Customs to process and clear cargo. It is designed to measure the efficiency of cargo clearance and identify any bottlenecks in the clearance process and identify opportunities for further streamlining.  

​A key priority for the Government and the New Zealand Customs Service is to disrupt the supply of illicit drugs, and with the Government’s Methamphetamine Action Plan we are getting positive results.

​A Hong Kong man whose only reason for coming to New Zealand was to facilitate the importation of drugs, was sentenced yesterday to eight and a half years imprisonment for the importation and possession for supply of the Class A Drug, methamphetamine.  

​Two lucky fishermen who were left clinging to a chilly bin after their dinghy capsized were rescued by the New Zealand Customs vessel Hawk IV yesterday evening. 

​An OFCANZ-led operation staffed by Police and Customs has disrupted a cocaine importing syndicate into New Zealand. Auckland Customs officers seized a 3.7 kilogram haul of cocaine at the border last week. The cocaine was worth over $1 million.

​Yesterday, the New Zealand Customs Service marked International Customs Day by returning a 175 kilogram piece of pounamu (also known as jade) to Ngāi Tahu. Customs stopped it from being exported illegally in December 2010.

​On Thursday 26 January, Customs received assistance from a Talleys fishing vessel, the Amaltal Apollo in locating the vessel Nilaya.