By NATASHA HARRIS
Customs officers cut a suitcase apart to grab $2.5 million of cocaine - the second-largest seizure of the drug in New Zealand.
About 7kg of the class A drug was seized at Auckland Airport, jammed into a 30mm-wide seam of a South African man's suitcase.
Two fibreglass shells, described
as an "elaborate concealment", hid the drug, which is believed to be of high purity.
New Zealand's biggest cocaine seizure was in February 1988 when 20kg was seized at the Ports of Auckland from a South American cargo ship carrying bananas.
The Customs manager of drug investigations, Simon Williamson, said the suitcase was checked after a 40-year-old South African man presented a false British passport on September 26. He is a Johannesburg resident working as an IT consultant.
"A concealment within the shell of the hardside suitcase was detected and the cocaine was found extremely compressed and brittle to remove.
"They actually had to cut the suitcase apart to get it."
Another man on the flight, a 44-year-old Australian, was arrested in connection with the seizure. The Israeli-born man has given a Sydney address and works in the fashion industry.
The men started their flight in Chile, stopping at Tahiti and Rarotonga before Auckland.
Police in New Zealand and Australia allege they were involved in an organised trafficking enterprise to take the drugs to Australia.
Mr Williamson said by not flying directly to Australia, the men could avoid appearing to have come from South America.
"If flights are from New Zealand, they do not attract the same amount of attention as if they had come direct from known source countries such as South America," Mr Williamson said.
The men have been charged with importing a class A drug and appeared in the Auckland District Court last week.
The South African pleaded guilty and has been remanded in custody until his November 13 appearance in the High Court at Auckland.
The Australian denied the charge and will face a depositions hearing on October 17.
