{"id":24693,"date":"2023-02-09T08:05:46","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T13:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=24693"},"modified":"2023-02-09T08:05:46","modified_gmt":"2023-02-09T13:05:46","slug":"new-zealand-drug-bust-batman-labelled-cocaine-haul-seized-at-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2023\/02\/09\/new-zealand-drug-bust-batman-labelled-cocaine-haul-seized-at-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand drug bust: Batman-labelled cocaine haul seized at sea"},"content":{"rendered":"
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New Zealand’s navy has intercepted a floating haul of cocaine in the Pacific Ocean in what the country says is its largest drug bust ever.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The stash – weighing total 3.2 tonnes (3,200kg) and worth NZ$500m (\u00a3263m; $316m) – was found drifting hundreds of kilometres northwest of New Zealand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Police believed it was destined for Australia, where it would have been enough to serve that market for a year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The packages were strung up with buoys and some labelled with a Batman symbol.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Pictures released by New Zealand police and defence officials also showed cocaine packets labelled with a black four-leaf clover symbol.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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These were the “trademark logos” for the drug producers, believed to be in South America, said New Zealand officials.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“This is the largest find of illicit drugs by New Zealand agencies, by some margin,” said New Zealand’s police commissioner Andrew Coster on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“It is more than New Zealand would use in 30 years,” he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Cocaine<\/picture><\/span><\/div>
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Some bales had a Batman symbol on them… (Image: New Zealand Defence Force)<\/div>\n<\/figcaption>
<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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\"Cocaine<\/picture><\/span>and others were wrapped in brown paper with a clover leaf sign (Image: New Zealand Police)<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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New Zealand’s navy deployed a vessel to retrieve the massive shipment last week, which comprised 81 bales of cocaine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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They were brought to Auckland in New Zealand’s North Island on Tuesday and taken to a security facility to be documented and destroyed, officials said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We believe we have dealt a significant blow to an international criminal syndicate’s operation,” Mr Coster said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Authorities did not disclose details of the operation or how they found the drugs. But they said their partners in the Five Eyes intelligence group – which includes Australia, the UK, Canada, and the US – had provided assistance.<\/p>\n

Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Zealand’s navy has intercepted a floating haul of cocaine in the Pacific Ocean in what the country says is its largest drug bust ever. The stash – weighing total 3.2 tonnes (3,200kg) and worth […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[819,1107,5967,2860],"class_list":{"0":"post-24693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-world","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cocaine","11":"tag-drugs-trade","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24693"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24696,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24693\/revisions\/24696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}