Afghanistan to Zimbabwe: The 103 countries of origin for drugs seized by NZ Customs

Saturday, 6 June 2026

Methamphetamine was found in maple syrup bottles sent from Canada to New Zealand. Canada is one of 80 countries Customs have identified as a country of origin for methamphetamine trafficking.

Illicit drugs from 103 countries have been seized at the NZ border in what experts say is a sign of traffickers trying to avoid scrutiny.

In the past five years, Customs has seized methamphetamine from 80 countries of origin, cocaine from 44 countries and MDMA from 37, according to figures released to the Waikato Times under the Official Information Act.

Countries of origin for pinged packages include locations as varied as Afghanistan, Brunei, Haiti, Ireland, Japan and Zimbabwe - and academics say that’s by design.

Say you’re a Colombian cocaine trafficker, you know a package from your country faces “serious scrutiny” at the NZ border, American criminologist Peter Reuter says.

Drug traffickers are trying to avoid ‘obvious importation red flags’, says Massey University Associate Professor Chris Wilkins.

That might not be the case if you shipped it through, say, Spain.

The literal A-Z of countries of origin for methamphetamine seizures runs the gamut from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, with some unexpected countries in the middle including Denmark, Greece, Iraq, Israel, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Poland, Sweden and Zambia.

Cocaine imports have been seized from South American hotspots such as Colombia and Peru, but also from countries less associated with the drug such as Ethiopia, Haiti, Ireland, Portugal and Switzerland.

Attempts have also been made to smuggle MDMA into New Zealand from countries as far afield as Austria, Bahrain, Norway, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

But why are so many countries on the list?

The complete list of countries NZ Customs have intercepted methamphetamine from.

It’s simply a means of avoiding “obvious importation red flags”, according to Massey University Associate Professor Chris Wilkins, who leads the drug research team at SHORE & Whariki Research Centre.

He said Customs is unable to search every item that is sent to New Zealand, so utilises what he called “profiling techniques” that would include country of origin.

Put simply, cocaine might be expected from Colombia - not from Haiti.

Wilkins said it was slightly different for methamphetamine, as a synthetic drug it is not tied to geographical locations like cocaine - dependent on the coca leaf.

“It kind of helps if you’re in an area where either the police are corrupt or the government is weaker and it can be a bit more larger scale.”

He said that while locations like Southeast Asia, the Thai border and Mexico are known producers of methamphetamine, countries in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and West Africa are also developing as hubs.

Customs said the cocaine seized as part of Operation Hydros has a street value of more than half a billion dollars.

He said MDMA production was more complicated, but that also production is shifting from the traditional big sites - the Netherlands and Belgium - to locations like Spain.

He described this type of trafficking as “basically a shotgun effect”.

Cocaine is cheap in Colombia, so you “shoot as many [shipments] as you can” and still make a lot of money when you lose some.

Wilkins’ view was echoed by Peter Reuter, American criminologist and founder of the RAND Corporation’s Drug Policy Research Centre.

“A Colombian cocaine trafficker wanting to send drugs to New Zealand knows that any Colombian package will get serious scrutiny from customs officials in New Zealand; shipping it through, say, Spain, will attract much less scrutiny,” he said.

“The question is whether the total of the risk of detection of the original shipment to Spain, which has substantial legal trade with Colombia, and the risk of detection of a Spanish shipment to New Zealand is greater than the risk of the direct Colombia-NZ detection.”

Reuter, who’s also a distinguished university professor at the University of Maryland, said he was “taken aback by the huge number of countries through which New Zealand's drug imports pass”.

“Eighty for methamphetamine alone. And representing all continents.”

New Zealand authorities intercepted 3.2 tonnes of cocaine afloat in the Pacific ocean.

While Customs was happy to provide the country of origin lists, and details of the largest seizures of methamphetamine, cocaine and MDMA over the last five years, a request for information on the global criminal groups identified by Customs as targeting New Zealand was declined.

The list of countries NZ Customs have intercepted cocaine and MDMA from over the last five years. Some obvious, like Columbia, some less so, like Haiti.

Customs group manager of intelligence, investigations and enforcement, Terry Brown, said they would withhold what he described as an “exhaustive list of criminal groups identified by Customs as attempting to traffic drugs into New Zealand”.

He said making that information available could prejudice prevention and detection of offences and fair trial rights.

Another factor is at play too, he said - much of it is “information gathered for intelligence purposes” and releasing it could “reveal information about our sources and tradecraft”.

“However, I can confirm that there is a wide range of criminal entities involved, both domestically and transnationally, in the trafficking of drugs to New Zealand,” he said.

“These entities are operating across a range of regions and continents. New Zealand is not immune to transnational, serious and organised crime actors, including cartels, and the threat is coming from all over the world and internally.”

The largest seizures to date

Canada, maple syrup and methamphetamine all came together in what - at the time of writing - remains the largest methamphetamine seizure in New Zealand history.

On January 14, 2023, a container with 18 pallets of maple syrup from Canada arrived at the Ports of Auckland.

What Customs found, among hundreds of maple syrup bottles, was crystals of methamphetamine hidden in the bottom - 713kg, in fact, worth about $250 million.

The country’s largest cocaine haul - also in 2023 - saw three tonnes of cocaine worth an estimated $500 million seized in the Pacific Ocean as part of a joint police, Customs and Defence Force operation.

The largest to-date MDMA seizure originated in Spain and was seized in July 2023 and contained 19.39kg of the drug.