In what comes as one of the biggest stashes of contraband confiscated, the New Zealand authorities on Wednesday said they had recovered cocaine worth $300 million, weighing 3.3 tonnes floating in international waters.
The joint operation named 'Operation Hydros' between the New Zealand police, customs and defence force led to the discovery of the drugs.
A total of 81 bales of cocaine was seized and hauled upon the Royal New Zealand Navy vessel HMNZS Manawanui back to the mainland where the entire batch was destroyed.
Local reports stated that some of the bales of cocaine had stickers as identifiers. One had a batman logo while another had a four-leaf clover.
The amount of drugs seized was enough to supply New Zealand for 30 years, which suggests that it was destined for another country - most certainly Australia, according to the authorities.
"This is the single biggest seizures of illegal drugs by authorities in this country by some margin. While this disrupts the syndicate’s operations, we remain vigilant given the lengths we know these groups will go to circumvent coming to law enforcement’s attention," Police Commissioner Andrew Coster was quoted as saying in a Reuters report.
"There is no doubt this discovery lands a major financial blow right from the South American producers through to the distributors of this product."
Drug traffickers often leave packaged drugs in international waters to be picked up by other vessels. It is a widely used strategy as cocaine floats and the traffickers using a net with flotation devices, attach the bales of drugs to it.
The discovery of the record amount of drug comes in the backdrop of New Zealand starting an operation last year to keep an eye on the movement of suspicious vessels whilst taking help from intelligence-sharing partners.
Last year in March, the agencies recovered a 700 kilogrammes cocaine shipment at a New Zealand port, coming from South America, bound for another country.
The upsurge in drug assignments through New Zealand suggests that drug traffickers are assessing it as a viable route to other market
