$1M haul of heroin found

Press, 18 April 1979, Page 1

$1M haul of heroin found

PA Auckland A SIM cache of highgrade heroin has been seized in Auckland, the police have annonced. The police say that with more finds undoubtedly to come, seizings of the illicit drug are heading for a record level this year. Drug detectives acknowledge that the discoveries are linked to an alarming rise in trafficking. In Wellington yesterday, the police issued figures showing a dramatic rise in the national figure for heroin prosecutions. (See page 6). They said there had been 205 heroin prosecutions in the first three months of this year, compared with 303 in the whole of last year.

The seizing of 941 grammes of heroin in the garden of a south Auckland house is believed to have been made last Thursday. The police say it was not announced until last evening in the hope that the drug pushers

would return to the scene. No arrests have been made.

The head of the Auckland district C. 1.8. (Detective Chief Inspector R. N. McDonald) said a small quantity of the heroin had been found in the garden. Police dogs had been called in, and two glass jars, containing the bulk of the haul, had been found buried a few centimetres below the surface. Mr McDonald believes it is the second-biggest haul seized in New Zealand. It is believed that the drug originated in Bangkok, Thailand, where the cost would have been about $150,000. When cut with glucose it would represent a street value in New Zealand of SIM. The south Auckland haul brings heroin seizings in the first quarter of the year to 1298 grammes. The total for the whole of last year was 1945 grammes. Even before the seizing, confiscation of heroin was ahead of the first quarter of 1978.