Jared Savage covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006 and has won a dozen journalism awards in that time, including twice being named Reporter of the Year. He is also the author of Gangland, Gangster’s Paradise and Underworld.
Earlier this year, Herald data editor Chris Knox crunched the numbers on the latest national wastewater drug testing results.
The answer was shocking.
Despite record-breaking drug busts in recent years, the consumption of methamphetamine in New Zealand had more than doubled in 2024 to the highest levels ever recorded.
A little more than 15kg of meth was detected each week in June last year.
For the next six months, weekly consumption exceeded 29kg and peaked at 39kg.
The data was dire. A discussion with Professor Chris Wilkins, New Zealand’s leading drug researcher for two decades, was no better.
The average price of a gram of meth was $360 in 2024, which has steadily decreased from $563 in 2017, according to Wilkins’ annual survey of more than 10,000 drug users.
“It’s definitely alarming. It really does seem a lot of the metrics are going south, really fast,” Wilkins said.
“That kind of decline in price is telling us that supply is getting so much deeper. We’ve got a big problem, basically.”
Wilkins described the significant decrease in the price and the sharp increase in consumption as a “real wake-up call”.
Someone in the Beehive was listening.
In February, the coalition government appointed a group of experts to advise the Cabinet on how to tackle the growing threat of transnational organised crime.
Since then, the ministerial advisory group has produced monthly reports with detailed recommendations on topics such as money laundering, corruption, and information-sharing between government agencies.
The final report landed on the desk of Casey Costello, the Customs Minister and Associate Police Minister, this month.
Essentially, it’s a blueprint for how all the previous recommendations could be implemented effectively.
To drive all the necessary changes across at least 13 government departments, the experts recommended establishing a “Minister for Organised Crime” to hold the various agencies accountable.
Sitting underneath would be an executive board composed of five public service chief executives: police, Customs, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) were suggested.
The board would be supported by a chief executive with 30 staff tasked with “understanding where the system is failing, whether due to gaps in the law, policy misalignment, or operational fragmentation” – and proposing targeted reforms to close those gaps.
“It is with some reluctance that we have proposed another ministerial portfolio at a time where there are calls to consolidate rather than expand the public sector,” the report states.
“But in this case, we think a new portfolio is clearly warranted. Without a strong ministerial lead driving the response, the ship will be rudderless.”
The recommendations in the reports are detailed, technical, and to the layperson, boring.
They’re not as sexy as the latest drug bust where police seize millions in dirty cash, high-powered firearms and a fleet of luxury cars.
They’re not as attention-grabbing as the gang-patch ban the Government passed into law nearly 12 months ago.
But they will be more effective, in my view.
As well as banning patches, the Gangs Act also gave the police new powers to issue dispersal notices to those who are disrupting the public (say, a large convoy of motorcycles), as well as seeking “non-consorting” orders from a judge to prevent specific gang members from associating with one another.
Have the new “anti-gang” laws made a difference?
The legislation certainly gives the police more tools to keep on top of “overt” offending by the run-of-the-mill gangster, and for the most part, gangs have complied with the patch ban.
Most members of the public will feel safer, and that’s important.
But the reality is that the Gangs Act will not make a significant impact on the “covert” offending committed by gang members, and other organised crime figures.
And it’s the hidden offending that is driving the endless supply of drugs into the country, as well as other crimes like cyber fraud, money-laundering and migrant exploitation.
The criminal underworld in New Zealand has evolved beyond recognition since I first started reporting on organised crime more than 15 years ago.
And it’s not getting any better.
In my view, the recommendations made by Costello’s advisory group – especially around information sharing between government agencies – are necessary and should be adopted in full.
Doing nothing is not an option. But even a half-hearted attempt watered down by compromise will only lead to more dire statistics in the wastewater figures, and the heartbreaking personal stories behind them.
For a government comprised of three “law and order” political parties, the decision should be a no-brainer.
Jared Savage covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006 and has won a dozen journalism awards in that time, including twice being named Reporter of the Year. He is also the author of Gangland, Gangster’s Paradise and Underworld.