New Zealand police find half a billion worth of cocaine floating at sea

New Zealand Police

The raft of cocaine floating on the Pacific Ocean

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 03:41

New Zealand police have a shipment of cocaine fished from the Pacific Ocean, worth half a billion New Zealand dollars, almost 300 million euros. The 81 packages of drugs, weighing 3.2 tons, floated around in the ocean on a kind of raft, presumably to be picked up later.

In a press conference, New Zealand Police Chief Andrew Coster called it “one of New Zealand’s biggest ever drug finds”. The amount of drugs, he said, was enough to supply all of Australia with cocaine for a year, and it would even supply his own country for 30 years. Given its size, the batch probably came from South America and was intended for the Australian market.

Party is destroyed

“There is no doubt that this is a major financial blow to South American cocaine producers,” said Coster. “And while this find will disrupt their activities, we must remain vigilant. We know how far these groups will go to stay out of sight of the authorities.”

No arrests have been made in connection with the drug discovery, and police would not elaborate on how they knew of the raft’s location. However, since last year the New Zealand police have been extra closely monitoring suspicious boats and other floating objects at sea, together with police organizations in other countries.

The cocaine is now being brought to the mainland by a New Zealand Navy ship, where the batch will be destroyed.

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