Canterbury farm workers turn out to be Colombia-linked cocaine smugglers
Author
Ric Stevens,
Publish Date
Sat, 7 Sep 2024, 4:50pm
Home News NationalColombia-linked cocaine syndicate in rural Canterbury imported drugs worth millions
Canterbury farm workers turn out to be Colombia-linked cocaine smugglers
News
National
Author
Ric Stevens,
Publish Date
Sat, 7 Sep 2024, 4:50pm
Some of the cocaine, cash and other items displayed by police when they busted the Canterbury drugs ring. They include parts for a heating system that had cocaine inside it, and the X-ray of a truck carrying a container in which drugs were hidden, taken in Spain. Photo / George Heard
Some of the cocaine, cash and other items displayed by police when they busted the Canterbury drugs ring. They include parts for a heating system that had cocaine inside it, and the X-ray of a truck carrying a container in which drugs were hidden, taken in Spain. Photo / George Heard
Stiff prison sentences have been handed out to South American citizens who, while working on farms in the South Island, formed themselves into a drug-smuggling syndicate that brought millions of dollars of cocaine into New Zealand. Ric Stevens reports on the Colombian connection to rural Canterbury.
Hororata is a village on the Canterbury Plains with a population of about 200, best known for its annual Highland Games festival.
But for a while, together with other Canterbury towns such as Dunsandel and Darfield, it also hosted a syndicate of an international cocaine-smuggling operation tracing back to the feared drug cartels of Colombia.
The group of Colombian farm workers became the biggest supplier of cocaine in New Zealand during the nearly four years they were operating.
Between early 2018 and late 2021, the syndicate imported, or tried to import, more than 100kg of cocaine into New Zealand. The drug had a street value of more than $45 million.
More:
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/colombia-linked-cocaine-syndicate-in-rural-canterbury-imported-drugs-worth-millions/