Cocaine found stashed inside travel pillow

Two men have appeared in court today charged over the seizure of about 1kg of cocaine stashed inside a travel pillow and allegedly inside one of the men.

Customs officials detained one man, Dutch passport holder Peter Koeman, at Auckland Airport on Sunday morning.

The illegal haul has an estimated street value of about $600,000.

Koeman, 49, appeared briefly in the Manukau District Court today and entered no pleas to one charge each of importing a class A drug and possessing it to supply.

Australian national David Thackray, 33, is charged with importing a class A drug. He also entered no plea and, along with Koeman, was remanded in custody until next month.

At their next appearance both men appear via audio-visual link from Mt Eden Prison.

All charges have a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

A statement from Customs said Koeman, who is from Thailand, flew to New Zealand from Chile on Sunday morning. He had travelled from Thailand to Brazil for a day and then spent a week in Bolivia.

It is alleged he was carrying a soft travel pillow containing 98 packages of cocaine when he arrived in New Zealand.

An X-ray of Koeman revealed two more pellets inside him, Customs alleged.

They were recovered using Customs' new "drug loo", a portable device that automatically collects and cleans the pellets and then puts them into an evidence container.

Thackray, Koeman's alleged accomplice, was arrested by the Organised Financial Crime Agency of New Zealand.

The pair's arrests come a week after a 72-year-old US citizen was charged with importing about 6.2kg of methamphetamine worth between $3 million and $6 million late last year.