Two held in $8 million P bust

An alleged drug smuggler was tailed from Auckland to Wellington by police before being arrested outside an inner-city hotel with more than $8 million worth of pure methamphetamine.

In one of the country's biggest P busts, police seized 8kg of the drug after an intensive week-long joint investigation with customs into an Asian crime syndicate.

A 23-year-old Hong Kong man and a 25-year-old Chinese woman appeared in court in Wellington yesterday on various charges of importing, possessing, conspiracy to import and conspiracy to supply a Class A controlled drug.

Forty police and customs staff worked around the clock since last Sunday on the investigation, code-named Operation Fiona.

"We have nipped in the bud a lot of the misery it would have caused New Zealanders," said Detective Senior Sergeant Darrin Thomson of the Wellington metro crime unit.

Identified by customs officers at Auckland International Airport, the drugs had come from China and were destined for Wellington, packed in double-wrapped, heat-sealed bags hidden under carbon granules in water filters.

Police arrested the accused after they allegedly tried to pass them on to another group outside Wellington's Duxton hotel.

Barrister Sandy Baigent, who is acting for the woman, said her client was a student whose English was poor enough that she required an interpreter in court. She had been living in Auckland for four years.

The pair were remanded in custody and will reappear in court tomorrow afternoon.

"As you would expect she is very stressed and very concerned," said Ms Baigent.

A third person was released without charge, but more arrests could follow. Mr Thomson said the group had been of interest to authorities "for some considerable time" before a breakthrough in the past two weeks allowed the incoming shipment to be identified.

"We don't believe it is this group's first importation and we are looking closely at other investigations with striking similarities to this one."

Detective Sergeant Mark Chenery said police would continue "wide-ranging inquiries", including with Interpol and Chinese authorities.

Customs Service drug investigations manager Simon Williamson said the concealment of the drugs - split into 340g units and distributed across 26 water filters in two separate boxes - gave an indication of the sophistication used.

With a street value of $1000 a gram, the drugs could have been bought from a source in Asia for as little as $20 a gram. New Zealand's biggest P bust came in August 2004 when 9kg of the drug, worth $9 million, was found in 30 lava lamps imported from China.

Mr Williamson said as long as there was high demand for hard drugs, international trafficking syndicates would target the country.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY