Cargo bungle led to drug haul

Press, 18 March 1982, Page 3

Cargo bungle led to drug haul

PA Auckland An air cargo bungle and a keen new drug dog named Rex thwarted the of 180 kg of cannabis which lay in a cargo shed undetected for more than a week. Customs officers knew some drug was among an Bm-high pile of lugggage when Rex. an 18-month black Labrador, stood on his hind legs and began barking at it. When they sorted through the 12 tonnes of Air New Zealand cargo stored at Auckland Airport, they found 12 suitcases tightly packed with Thai cannabis.

Customs and police officers then began an extensive inquiry to trace the importers, and to discover why they had not tried to conceal the cannabis within the suitcases.

It soon became apparent that the drug importers had risked the same sort of bungle which has air travellers reaching one destination and their luggage another. The suitcases had been consigned to Auckland on another airline. where an employee was to ensure that the -luggage did not go through customs. But instead it arrived on an Air New Zealand flight and remained in the unaccompanied baggage area, leaving the importers trying to sort a way out of their predicament. Then: on January 23; along came Rex on a routine visit to the cargo shed.

If sold now, the cannabis was estimated to fetch about $450,000. If it was kept until winter, when locally grown cannabis was scarce, the haul could fetch up to $650,000. The huge find, one of the biggest in New Zealand’s history, was kept secret by investigating officers while inquiries were made overseas and here.

Inquiries have shown that a similar operation may have been successfully made by the same group a' month earlier.

Three men, aged in their early 30s. have appeared inthe District Court at Auckland charged with conspiring to import cannabis, and have been remanded until next month. Two have had their names suppressed.