New Zealand is viewed as a "golden nugget" by international drug cartels for sending methamphetamine to, Customs says.
Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, made famous by the Netflix series Narcos, is one of the world's most powerful drug trafficking syndicates - and they have contacts in New Zealand to help transport meth.
At Customs on the border, they find massive shipments of methamphetamine every day.
"The prices we pay in New Zealand makes us the highest in the world, and that makes us attractive," Customs investigations manager Bruce Berry told Patrick Gower as part of his documentary Patrick Gower: On P.
"We've got credible reporting that one Mexican drug cartel sees New Zealand as the golden nugget. So they're pushing bulk supply into New Zealand, it's all about money."
In a Newshub exclusive, the notorious Sinaloa Cartel has spoken publicly for the first time about how they export methamphetamine to New Zealand.
They talk about how cheap it is to make there and openly discuss having operatives here.
In a sign of how brazen the syndicate is, they conducted an interview for Gower's documentary while packing meth.
"I am in charge only of the packing, and of sending it out from here in Culiacán," an anonymous cartel member says.
"We are packing right now. Here we have four kilos, more or less."
Methamphetamine does make its way to New Zealand - like the 501 kilograms in the Ninety Mile Beach bust that was stopped when it got here.
One of those busted, Stevie Cullen, speaks for the first time in Gower's documentary, saying his life could be in danger from the international syndicate behind it.
"Up till this point they haven't put a hit out on me," he says "[But] they send people across the world to kill people, you know."
Local criminals and international cartels, teaming up to get P into New Zealand.
