Two men charged with smuggling large amounts of the dangerous drug methamphetamine in golf cart batteries were named for the first time in a New Zealand court on Monday.
The men were arrested last weekend following a January bust that was “one of the largest-ever made by Customs” in New Zealand, according to a report by the New Zealand website Stuff.
Customs officers inspected a suspicious shipping container to find three six-seater golf carts. When they looked inside, officers discovered that the golf cart batteries were packed full of crystal methamphetamine. Two handguns were also found.
Police arrested two suspects last weekend, weeks after finding the illegal cargo, which had been shipped from the United States.
Two men are scheduled to appear in court this afternoon after Customs and @nzpolice thwarted an attempt to smuggle 110 kgs of methamphetamine and two handguns into #NewZealand inside golf cart batteries. Read more: https://t.co/c75JyuR27D pic.twitter.com/klPazISP6J
— New Zealand Customs Service (@NZ_Customs) February 24, 2019
The two men, Chiu Tan Yu, a 39-year-old Taiwanese national, and Linmo Peter Sun, a 27-year-old Chinese national, were named for the first time in an Auckland courthouse on Monday. According to Stuff’s report, “the pair were originally given interim name suppression last week because Sun does not speak English and there was no interpreter available.”
The confiscated drugs are reportedly worth a little more than the golf cart batteries they were found in: a whopping $55 million in Australian dollars, which comes out to about $39 million U.S. dollars.
The report notes that Customs officials estimate the drugs would have caused $136 million (AUD) in social harm to the New Zealand population had they had not been seized.
