From dairy farms in Canterbury, a group of Colombians imported cocaine linked to an infamous cartel – oblivious to the undercover agents who’d infiltrated their operation. Sam Sherwood reports.
In the grimy backstreets of Armenia in western Colombia, a drug dealer reached into his backpack and passed several silver packages to a man sitting beside him in a parked car.
The packages contained 2kg of cocaine, which the man and an associate bought for nearly $5000.
For the dealer it seemed to be a routine drug handover to men with links to a group of Colombians based in New Zealand, where the street price of cocaine is amongst the highest in the world (a single gram can sell for more than $350).
The following day he met the two men again, and handed over a further 4kg, not knowing the pair were actually agents for the United States’ Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) who were buying the cocaine as part of a major investigation into a transnational drug syndicate with members based on dairy farms in rural Canterbury.
And all of it was caught on camera.
A DEA agent receives cocaine from a drug dealer in Colombia.POLICE / STUFF
As part of the elaborate investigation, codenamed Operation Mist, undercover DEA agents infiltrated Colombia’s notoriously dangerous underworld, and gained the syndicate’s trust by laundering money from the sale of cocaine in New Zealand.
By the time the drugs were handed over in the back of the car, the dealer and his associates thought they were in a partnership. The DEA agents had told them they’d take over the running of the importation arm of their business. Profits from the operation would be split 50/50.
About a month later, in November, 2021, police terminated Operation Mist, raiding a number of properties across Canterbury. They arrested 11 people, all of whom have since pleaded guilty.
Now, through exclusive interviews, and never before seen photos and video, police and Customs officials have lifted the lid on the investigation, and revealed 100kg of cocaine the syndicate tried to import into New Zealand was likely sourced from the Medellín Cartel – a ruthless criminal organisation formed by the man dubbed the “King of Cocaine”, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.
OPERATION MIST
However, in recent times organised crime groups have ramped up efforts to get the highly-addictive party drug into the country to take advantage of the comparatively high prices on offer.
In 2020, officials at New Zealand’s border learned international authorities had seized various packages of cocaine addressed to properties in rural Canterbury.
The intel piqued the interest of chief customs officer Rachel Manning, who thought the cluster of shipments required further scrutiny.
An undercover DEA agent was given $200,000 by a member of the syndicate to launder.POLICE / STUFF
The seized packages of cocaine were low-weight, but there were a lot of them. They’d been sent from countries like Panama, the United States and Chile.
The named recipients appeared to be variations of the names of Colombian men and women who worked on Canterbury dairy farms.
Customs investigators were confident the seized packages were linked, and suspected others had already made their way into the country undetected.
Sparks quickly realised the significance of what Customs had unearthed, telling the officer he appointed to manage the investigation, Detective Paul Sullivan, it would likely “eat up the next two or three years of your life”.
The syndicate hid cocaine inside various items, including this children’s toy.POLICE / STUFF
As Operation Mist ramped up, Colombian authorities intercepted several more packages of cocaine destined for a property in Christchurch. A Colombian dairy farm worker used to live at the same address.
Then DEA staff, who’d been briefed on the investigation, told New Zealand police they’d learned a drug syndicate was trying to get money from New Zealand to Colombia.
It was a major breakthrough for detectives working on the investigation.
“We hadn’t joined the dots and then it all came together,” Sullivan said.
“You’ve got all these imports coming in and then you’ve got the group in Colombia wanting to get money back to Colombia from New Zealand.
Using undercover agents, the DEA infiltrated the syndicate and secured a contract to launder the proceeds of its drug operation.
Its first job was in 2021, when Auckland-based Elida Escorcia Marin handed a pink Versace box filled with $100,000 to one of the agents.
Police believed Escorcia Marin was a lower level member of the syndicate, who was acting on instructions of others more senior than her.
It would take many hours of covert surveillance to expose them.
Authorities found 23.6kg of cocaine destined for New Zealand in Barcelona.POLICE / STUFF
‘A matrix of subterfuge’
The Canterbury dairy farm workers importing the cocaine had progressively arrived in New Zealand on student visas since 2013.
He’d risen through the ranks over several years, as other members returned to Colombia, and organised and received importations of cocaine.
“This involved a matrix of subterfuge, across numerous local addresses, using false or modified names of recipients, differing methods of delivery, modes of import, and product descriptions, in an attempt to avoid border systems,” court documents say.
The cocaine was hidden in packages containing items like fishing nets, motorbike parts, children’s toys, camping equipment and clothing.
Goods shipped to New Zealand worth more than $1000 need to carry a “client code” identifying the importer. To get around this, the syndicate used driver licences and passports handed in at a bar where a member worked to forge client code applications.
Operation Mist identified 53 shipments of cocaine the organised crime group tried to import into New Zealand. About half were successful.
The largest, which contained 23.6kg of the drug, was found in hot water cylinders inside a shipping container in Barcelona in 2021, and was addressed to a Darfield property.
About that time, the suspected head of the New Zealand arm of the syndicate travelled to Rarotonga for a holiday.
Authorities in Barcelona open a hot water cylinder used to hide cocaine.POLICE / STUFF
When he touched down, he was searched by the officer, revealing a “very detailed notebook”, which included names, addresses, tracking numbers and details of financial transactions linked to imports of cocaine.
The notebook also included details of the client code application for the shipment of drugs found in Barcelona.
A month later, the man and another syndicate member, Esteban Blanco Gaviria, met with an undercover DEA agent in Rolleston, and handed over $100,000 so it could be laundered and sent back to Colombia.
The trio met again several weeks later in a room at a central Christchurch hotel, where Blanco Gaviria handed the agent another $200,000 wrapped in plastic.
As trust in the relationship grew, so too did the DEA’s involvement in the syndicate’s operation.
And, by September 2021, the agency’s agents were collecting the cocaine from the dealer in Armenia.
Caught on camera
New Zealand Police involved in Operation Mist surveilled Canterbury-based members of the syndicate for about 10 months.
By November 2021, they felt they’d gathered enough evidence to terminate the investigation, and raided various properties in a two-day operation involving about 75 staff.
They seized various phones, tens of thousands of dollars in cash and cocaine testing kits, but only small amounts of the drug.
But messages found in an encrypted app on one of the phones reinforced that those involved weren’t low level dealers. In one video, members of the group could be seen weighing and testing white powder from a large silver-wrapped package, before holding a vial up to the camera showing it was high quality cocaine.
Investigators couldn’t believe their luck.
Esteban Blanco-Gaviria pleaded guilty to charges of importing cocaine, money laundering and participating in an organised criminal group.ALDEN WILLIAMS / THE PRESS
“It was a great way to evidentialise the cocaine – literally they did it for us,” Sullivan said.
Within weeks, wastewater testing showed a 40% drop in use of the drug across the country.
Since late last year, the 11 people arrested as part of Operation Mist have pleaded guilty to an array of charges, including importing class A drugs, money laundering and participating in an organised criminal group. They’re due to be sentenced later this year.
Reflecting on the investigation, Sparks says those involved in the syndicate were good at what they did, and kept a low profile.
“They’ve come into the country, completely unnoticed, they’ve done all the right things in terms of the immigration and work visas and the way they lived here.”
There were no flash cars, and nothing obvious to indicate they were part of a transnational drug syndicate, Sparks says.
The investigation revealed the lengths to which cartels are prepared to go to tap into New Zealand’s “golden goose” cocaine market.
“They’re willing to lose 90 per cent of their shipments, probably more … because they don’t have to get much through when they’re making that amount of money to either break even or make a profit.”
“New Zealand police have the skills and the staff who are working ridiculously hard to ensure this sort of thing is found.
“The team of investigators who worked on [Operation Mist] are phenomenal in what they achieved.”
DEA special agent John Scott, who is in charge of the agency’s Asia Pacific Division, said Operation Mist was an example of how cooperation with international partners could “dismantle a transnational criminal organization cell operating throughout New Zealand”.
“The DEA will continue to work with New Zealand Police and Customs to target these criminal cells and will bring all of its resources to bear in the fight.”
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