It was reported in New Zealand Herald that approximately $2 million worth of cocaine was washed up from a beach in New Zealand on 7th August. The leading authorities are taking efforts to search the area for more of the contraband. The department is doing a major search up and down the rugged coast. They would be patrolling the shore for the next few days.
It was a local resident who happened to discover the illicit drug at the Bethells Beach west of Auckland. The drug was wrapped in blue packages and scattered across the beach. The resident found something fishy and immediately notified the police. The packages when tested showed positive results for cocaine in it.
Colin Parmenter – the Detective Inspector of Waitematä police has urged the public to directly contact the authorities if any more packages turn up on the beach.
A crime expert cited by The Guardian remarked that these packages are likely to arrive from Peru or Columbia. They would have been purchased out there for around $7,500 per kilogram and then sold in New Zealand for about $250,000 per kilogram.
According to Jose Sousa-Santos, a Pacific crime researcher at New Zealand’s Massey University – “The syndicates can definitely afford to lose consignments to the tune of $3 million because there is a huge mark-up and quite a big margin of profit that they make from the deal.”
It was just last monthly only when the U.S. Coast Guard managed to offload more than 26,000 pounds of cocaine worth $350 million in San Diego. They had planned a long operation for weeks in the international waters.