Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Glen Dobson: Drug Detection Agency CEO on the exponential increase in seized drugs at the border

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Glen Dobson: Drug Detection Agency CEO on the exponential increase in seized drugs at the border · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So the supply chain for drugs apparently quite a lot
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: more resilient than oil. Huge drug halls are being caught
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: at Auckland Airport. Numbers have quadrupled between twenty eighteen and
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, from one point five to six and
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: a half tons. That's at Auckland Airport alone. And the
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Customs Minister Casey Costello has revealed for the first time
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: that the nine weeks of this first nine weeks of
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: this year, more than twelve tons of cocaine has been
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: intercepted in the Pacific. Glenn Dobson is with the Drug
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Detection Agency, the chief executive there. Glenn, good morning, Yeah,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: good morning, right, So lots of it's still coming through.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look there is, and it shouldn't be a surprise
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: to us. I guess won't tell us two things. It
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: tells us that the scale is increasing. But the good
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: thing is also secondly that the border agencies are get
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: better detecting it all.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Does it mean that we are getting I mean, is
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: it the tip of the iceberg that we are getting?
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: So if we're seeing six and a half tons that
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: have been intercepted, does that mean we're going to have
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: you know, sixty tons that aren't.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that potential. What it's certainly showing is that, and
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: the paper outlines as well, is that New Zealand's definitely
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: been equally actively targeted by the organized crime groups of
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: the scale. But it also shows that, as the paper
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: recommends closer consultation between the agencies, that greater seizures also
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: means that they're starting to get some great successes as well,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: which we want to keep working on as a country.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: They're coming from some odd places, like there was a
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: spake there last year. I don't know if it's still
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: happening now. They're coming in through the airport from Canada.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Canada. It's funny enough. Canada isn't an unusual place
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: for drugs to come through on a global supplied network.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Often they'll move in all sorts of places to make
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: it look less obvious where the original destination is from,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: and Canada is a known country for the global supply
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: of drugs.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Do you think this Ministerial Advisory Group is actually going
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: to make changes, like is it going to have an
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: effect that means that we have less drugs that they
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: therefore become more expensive in New Zealand?
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, look, I think what this paper shows
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  Speaker 2: is that we as a country and the government start
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: to step up, but the reality is that there isn't
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: a single solution. We need enforcement, we need protection, but
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: we also need to reduce demand, and that's one of
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: the big things. As long as there's a high demand,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: the supply will keep coming. So that's where the community
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: resilience side of the paper really steps up, and that's
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: where every person in this country needs to step up
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: to try and reduce that demand.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: In your work, what type of drugs are people are
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: you finding that people are using?
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, from the Drug Detection Agencies perspective, we released a
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: quarterly reports a couple months ago and we saw a
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: huge increase in cocaine across the country. We see the
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: same strong usages of methamphetamine, and both of those drugs
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: that we're seeing increases and strong use in are also
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: mirrored in the recent government the steps as well, So
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: certainly we're seeing a strong use of both those drugs.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Appreciate your time, Swaning Glenn. Thank you. Glenn Dobson. Drug
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Detection Agencies.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 3:12
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• 3:16
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