New Zealanders Using Record Amounts of Cocaine

Mexican and South American cartels using local gangs as distributors.

A shipment of cocaine floats on the surface of the Pacific Ocean with Royal New Zealand Navy vessel HMNZS Manawanui behind, in a file photo. NZ Police via AP

An analysis of five years of wastewater test results from the government’s Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) has revealed New Zealanders are using increasing amounts of cocaine, particularly in the past 18 months.

ESR tests wastewater at 45 discharge points across the country to provide police with verifiable data on drug use patterns, and differences between regions.

When testing for cocaine commenced in November 2018, just 600 grams per week was recorded—by June 2023 that figure had reached 2.3 kilograms (5 pounds), the highest figure ever recorded, capping a steady increase first detected in June the previous year.

Throughout 2022, at least a kilogram of cocaine was consumed each week, which was a 61 percent increase on 2021’s figures.

Consumption in 2022 was similar to the previous peak observed in 2019 before the global supply chain was disrupted by COVID-19 lockdowns, but the 2023 data sets a new high.

Per capita, Central Auckland and Queenstown consumed the most cocaine, followed by West Auckland, the North Shore, and Mount Maunganui.

The drug is not only increasing in volume but also geographic spread, finding its way into regional areas where previously only methamphetamine had been detected.

Many Drug Users Claim Cocaine Is Easy to Get

ESR’s quantitative data was consistent with the findings of the New Zealand Drug Trends Survey, conducted by Massey University and published last August.

It questioned 13,000 respondents about their attitudes to, and use of, various drugs and revealed that 46 percent of Aucklanders thought cocaine was “easy” or “very easy” to obtain—a marked increase on the 29 percent who gave a similar response five years ago.

Similar responses were also recorded from drug users in Wellington (15 to 27 percent), Waikato (13 to 36 percent), and Canterbury (7 to 27 percent).

Police and academics attribute the rise in consumption to increased availability of the drug as the result of Mexican and South American cartels working to get cocaine across the border, where it was then sold by local motorcycle gangs with international links, such as the Comancheros and Mongols.

This appears to be a shift in thinking, as documents released (pdf) by the NZ Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet in 2020 included the statement: “The most significant threats to New Zealand are Asian Organised Crime groups who work with Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs and New Zealand adult gangs to target New Zealand’s drug market.”

Seizures Increasing

In 2009, NZ Customs stopped just 3 kilograms of cocaine at the border. But since 2017 there have been several seizures over 100 kilograms, including a record of 700 kilograms at the Port of Tauranga in March 2022.

Further, last year, almost 4 tonnes of the powder, with a local wholesale value of $580 million (US$362 million) on the local market, was found floating in the Pacific Ocean in nets with buoyancy devices, awaiting collection.

At the time, police said they estimated it would have caused $9 billion in social harm if it had reached New Zealand.

In October last yearm another shipment was intercepted at Auckland’s port. That was 140 kilograms of cocaine, estimated to be worth $63 million, which was found hidden within a container, which was understood to have originated in Ecuador.

Four men were arrested, one of whom was found to have a pistol fitted with a silencer.

However, it is thought that not all of the cocaine being sent to New Zealand is destined to remain there.

According to the Global Organized Crime Index, “The gap between the amount of drugs seized and local use of the drug indicates that New Zealand and other Pacific Island countries mostly serve as transit points for cocaine headed to Australia, the largest drug market in the region and one of the world’s most lucrative for cocaine.”