Drug researcher believes Mexican cartels responsible for meth lollies in New Zealand

A leading drug researcher believes it’s likely there are more meth-laced lollies in the community, but is confident the delivery to Auckland City Mission was unintentional.

The Mission says the Rinda-branded pineapple lollies were donated by an unknown member of the public in a sealed, retail-sized package containing about 20 to 30 lollies sometime after July 1.

The incident sent shockwaves across the country, and landed three people in hospital.

Police recovered 16 of the lollies yesterday, and a further 13 were discovered overnight in Auckland.

The lollies are normally manufactured in Malaysia, but Massey University drug researcher Professor Chris Wilkins doesn’t believe that’s where the drugs came from.

“Increasingly methamphetamine smuggling is coming from Mexico through Mexican cartels.

“They’re very dynamic business groups. So they spend a lot of their time on smuggling technology, and they’re very involved in really large-scale manufacturing.”

The New Zealand Drug Foundation is warning people not to consume Rinda brand pineapple lollies after a potentially lethal amount of methamphetamine was found in a lolly wrapped in the brand’s packaging. Photo / NZ Drug Foundation

Wilkins says smugglers often conceal class A drugs inside products or items to land them on our shores, but hiding them inside food and drink can have fatal consequences.

Auckland man Aiden Sagala died last year in March after taking a few sips from a can he thought contained beer. But the Honey Bear House Beer-branded beverage actually contained pure liquid methamphetamine.

Like any normal business, Wilkins says drug cartels are constantly innovating - concealing meth in things like vinegar, furniture, and building products. But he believes disguising drugs as lollies is unique.

“It’s fairly unusual that it’s in an obviously dangerous form for children, and also in the final kind of retail packaging, because they’re the most likely for somebody to consume.

“But I guess that is also part of the concealment game. That they’re trying to make them look as innocuous as possible.”

Aiden Sagala of Auckland died after drinking beer allegedly contaminated with methamphetamine.

Wilkins says it also makes it harder for authorities to detect.

“I think that once they’ve developed this means of smuggling, they’re going to try and exploit it as much as they can in different products.

“It creates a real challenge for customs and other organisations, because they may have detection methods like X-ray and sniffer dogs that this new approach is designed to overcome.”

But Wilkins says like any normal business, cartels have mishaps too, and that’s how the drugs could’ve ended up at the Auckland City Mission.

“There’s definitely no intention of poisoning the public with methamphetamine through food or household items. They [cartels] would’ve meant to intercept that product or goods at the border or post the border, and for some reason it’s either slipped through, or they’ve mislabelled or lost the shipment.

“People imagine drug trafficking organisations as this kind of mafia or professional criminals, but often there’s a fair amount of incompetency and lack of planning and mishaps going on.”

Auckland City Mission says it’s aware of one packet of the Rinda lollies that were donated, but says it’s possible there could be more, and Wilkins believes it’s safe to assume it was part of a much bigger shipment.

So can we expect to see more meth lollies arriving on our shores? Wilkins says probably not using exactly the same method.

“They know now that this [is] obviously blown in terms of this product, but we know they’ll try their luck in other products.

“Once they’ve got the technique down, they can certainly target a whole lot of different products and see what happens.”