Drugs in Americans’ mail

Press, 2 December 1981, Page 1

Drugs in Americans’ mail

Hashish, cannabis, and “magic mushrooms” have been found by Christchurch customs officers in mail and parcels addressed to Americans in Antarctica. Drugs had been found in more than 40 parcels, often concealed in foodstuffs to fool drugs dogs, said the Assistant Collector of Customs in Christchurch (Mr B. J. Kearns) yesterday. He said the finding of the drugs obviously justified the checking of goods in transit, which had angered some of the American scientists, support workers, and servicemen on the Ice, and in Christchurch. Some of the Americans could face prosecution when they returned from the Ice, “depending on the outcome of the interviews we will

have with them," said Mr Kearns. The United States government, including the State Department, the Defence Department, and the National Science Foundation, has joined the New Zealand authorities in investigating the Antarctic drug traffic. In a letter to “The Press” last month, 64 men and women of “Operation Deep Freeze” said that the action of Christchurch customs men had embittered “hundreds of otherwise friendly Americans” and' jeopardised the friendly working relationship between the two countries. They said that Antarcticbound mail had been “systematically opened, read, fondled, confiscated, and sometimes damaged.” Mr Kearns said he knew of

only one case in which a parcel had been slightly damaged. He said checking An-tarctic-bound mail nad started as a result of indications that goods were being illegally imported, and that some personnel were getting duty and sales exemptions to which they were not entitled. Mr Kearns discounted assertions by the Americans that the mail was in the "freedom in, transit” category. If mail was removed from an aircraft when it landed in New Zealand, then, under the Customs Act, it had been imported into New Zealand. The mail comes to Christchurch through the United States Navy postal system. It arrives aboard commercial aircraft and is

transferred to Royal New Zealand Air Force and United States Navy Hercules transports for the journey to the Ice. A report from McMurdo Station in yesterday’s “New York Times” went so far as to allege that some officials of the National Science Foundation, which has overall responsibility for America’s Antarctic programme, had talked of moving the Antarctic operations base to Australia, “though the cost makes this unlikely.” The newspaper said that the customs checks had undermined the “traditionally close co-operation between the United States and New Zealand in the study of Antarctica.”

They had also “stirred anger and depressed morale" among the Americans on the Ice. The superintendent of the Antarctic Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in Christchurch (Mr R. B. Thomson) yesterday described the furore as a storm in a teacup. However, like officials of the National Science Foundation, he was concerned about anything which might upset the harmonious relationship which New Zealand had had with the United States over Antarctica for 25 years. Mr Thomson said he had spoken to high-ranking National Science Foundation

officials by telephone yesterday about the matter. Of the reported talk of a move to Australia, he said: “There is no such plan or any official thought of anything of the sort. Someone might have said it when they were annoyed down on the Ice.” Mr Thomson said that the drug incidents were unfortunate. “A few have done the wrong thing and the many are innocent victims,” he said. Even if the "Operation Deep Freeze ' base were moved to Australia, parcels, mail, and personnel bound for Antarctica could well be subject to such checks as those made in Christchurch, said a senior customs official from Sydney. “We would certainly be keeping an eye on things," he said.