{"id":23478,"date":"2026-04-28T19:43:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T19:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/23478\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T19:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T19:43:15","slug":"royal-canadian-mounted-police-to-send-liaison-officer-to-new-zealand-after-record-drug-busts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/23478\/","title":{"rendered":"Royal Canadian Mounted Police to send liaison officer to New Zealand after record drug busts"},"content":{"rendered":"

On top of the enormous amounts of drugs stopped at the border, police investigating the death of Aidan Sagala<\/a> uncovered more than 700kg of meth from Canada in a storage unit in South Auckland.<\/p>\n

The drugs had been smuggled into the country in a liquid form disguised as cans of beer.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old Sagala, who was entirely innocent, died after he unwittingly drank a lethal dose from one of the beer cans which was given to him.<\/p>\n

The links between Canada and the two biggest meth busts in New Zealand history were examined in a television documentary last year dubbed Cartel Canada.<\/p>\n

The investigation by veteran journalist Avery Haines revealed that no arrests had been made in Canada for either of the enormous drug importations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very serious issue that those shipments came through Canada,\u201d Chief Superintendent Mathieu Bertrand, the RCMP director of organised crime, told Haines in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur head\u2019s not in the sand \u2026 it\u2019s obviously not a title we\u2019re proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Canada and New Zealand already shared intelligence and worked on joint operations together, the RCMP confirmed to the Herald that it was planning to deploy an international liaison officer this year.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said that RCMP liaison officers are stationed in strategic locations around the world, in partnership with law enforcement agencies, foreign governments and Canadian embassies, to fight transnational crime.<\/p>\n

\u201cCollaboration with New Zealand is important to disrupting illegal drugs that transit through Canada to the Indo-Pacific region, including to Australia and New Zealand,\u201d the RCMP said in a written statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose of opening an International Liaison Office in New Zealand is to deepen our already very close ties with law enforcement in this key Five Eyes country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Five Eyes is an intelligence-sharing alliance between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.<\/p>\n

As well as the pending introduction of the RCMP, New Zealand already hosts agents from the Australian Federal Police (AFP), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation <\/a>(FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration <\/a>(DEA) from the US.<\/p>\n

\"AidenAiden Sagala, 21, died in 2023 after drinking liquid methamphetamine disguised in pallets of ‘Honey Bear’ beers imported from Canada. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

The presence of the DEA and FBI, like the arrival of the Canadian police force, is in direct response to the escalation of methamphetamine, and cocaine, sent to the Pacific region by Mexican cartels.<\/p>\n

For many years, Southeast Asia had been the dominant source of methamphetamine, or precursor ingredients, smuggled into New Zealand.<\/p>\n

But the lucrative prices which users pay for Class-A drugs in New Zealand and Australia caught the attention of Mexican cartels such as Sinaloa and CJNG. <\/p>\n

Both groups are believed to be behind the upswing in large-scale drug imports heading to New Zealand over the past 10 years, in particular shipments exported from Canada and the US.<\/p>\n

Despite a string of record-breaking drug busts<\/a> in recent years, the local market has been flooded with methamphetamine and cocaine.<\/p>\n

As a result, the drugs have never been cheaper<\/a> and consumption has dramatically increased to record levels<\/a> over the past two years.<\/p>\n

The 2024 wastewater statistics were so dire that the Government appointed a group of experts to advise Cabinet on how to tackle the growing threat of transnational organised crime.<\/p>\n

The ministerial advisory group produced monthly reports<\/a> for Customs Minister Casey Costello with detailed recommendations on topics such as money-laundering, corruption, and information-sharing.<\/p>\n

\"OperationOperation Regis intercepted more than 700kg of methamphetamine exported from Canada in 2023. Photo \/ NZ Police<\/p>\n

But for agencies to be held accountable for making the necessary changes, the panel\u2019s final report recommended that a government minister with a dedicated focus needed to be put in charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, we need an organised government to fight organised crime, and through the action plan we are working on the best way of doing this and making full use of all of the resources, powers and information that agencies collectively possess,\u201d Costello said in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone agrees that a new approach is needed. Now it\u2019s about working out how to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any decision is likely to be announced as part of the coalition Government\u2019s Budget package in May.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Paradise and Underworld.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On top of the enormous amounts of drugs stopped at the border, police investigating the death of Aidan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3826,11699,11697,17,351,11700,10953,11696,11702,3246,11705,11703,11693,792,11704,1726,11692,5507,1722,4202,634,1240,11695,8573,10090,11701,160,3585,11698,4625,11694],"class_list":["post-23478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-after","tag-alongside","tag-busts","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-cartels","tag-criminal","tag-drug","tag-drugs","tag-enforcement","tag-here","tag-into","tag-liaison","tag-local","tag-lucrative","tag-market","tag-mounted","tag-new","tag-office","tag-officer","tag-open","tag-police","tag-record","tag-royal","tag-send","tag-smuggling","tag-target","tag-to","tag-will","tag-work","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}