Crims’ cash fights drug trade
The Auckland City Mission received $16.7m.
Police have seized or restrained more than half a billion dollars worth of assets from drug lords, fraudsters and gangs, and the money is funding a crackdown on international drug smuggling.
As of September 11, police had stripped criminals of more than $255.48 million worth of cash and assets, and had restrained a further $258.01m pending further investigation. Documents released to Stuff under the Official Information Act revealed about $48m worth of gang and criminal money had been paid out to agencies to fund projects targeting drugs and organised crime since 2013. Many of those costly projects directly targeted international points of importation such as China and the Americas.
Criminal money funded a $1m police liaison officer position in China in 2013.
The same year, a further $100,000 was approved for a Customs project to ‘‘build on [a] co-operative relationship with Chinese enforcement agencies’’.
Customs was allocated $1.52m between 2015 and 2016 to post a liaison officer in Hong Kong.
In 2016, more than $2.7m of criminal money was allocated to police and Customs for projects to hamper the international flow of drugs.
Those included a Customs analyst position in Washington DC targeting meth and cocaine flows into New Zealand from the Americas, new Customs intelligence opportunities and a Prevention at Source Project, to identify and stop drugs at the Southern China border.
Agencies have the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009 to thank for the funding. The act allows police to seize cash and assets from gangs and criminals if a High Court judge can be convinced they are directly or indirectly a product of crime.
The Auckland City Mission received $16.7m from the fund in 2017 for 30 new studio units for people recovering from addiction.