DRUGS SEIZURES INCREASE BUT STILL TIP OF ICEBERG

Increased funding has enabled more seizures of hard drugs smuggled into New
Zealand, says the Customs Service.

"There's no doubt that increased funding from the Government given to
Customs last year has had a flow-on effect in our ability to be more
proactive, both in our intelligence and investigative capabilities,"
Customs drug investigations manager Simon Williamson said.

"It means we have a better idea of where to look."

Customs revealed yesterday hard drugs seizures in the year ended June 30,
2004 included:

22kg of cocaine (up from 217g the previous year); more than 1kg of heroin
(up from 233g);

3kg of crystal methamphetamine (up from 941g); 1.2 million tablets of
ephedrine or pseudoephedrine used for making methamphetamine (up from 670,784).

Seizures of MDMA (ecstasy) bucked the trend and fell from 265,447 to
180,000 tablets in the latest financial year.

However, Customs estimated it was still only seizing about 20 per cent of
the drugs smuggled into the country.

The tightening up of the internal supply of substances had led to a huge
increase in volumes being obtained from offshore supplies, Mr Williamson
told National Radio today.

"What Customs is now seeing at the border is merely reflective of the
ongoing problem in this country in regards to methamphetamine production."

As long as there was demand in New Zealand for the drugs, there would be
groups looking to satisfy it, by importing the substances.

Mr Williamson said New Zealand could not just rely on Customs control and
policing against drugs, but had to face the whole issue of drug abuse.

New Zealand was also being used as a transit point for drugs intended for
larger markets such as Australia, and this raised the risk of "spillover"
into New Zealand society, he said.

- - NZPA