Ten Malaysians who were arrested as they flew in to Auckland with a tour party were all carrying crystal methamphetamine in their shoes, New Zealand customs alleged today.

Customs drug investigations manager Mark Day said it was the biggest number of drug couriers ever caught in a single incident at the New Zealand border.

Each of the eight men and two women aged between their early 20s to late 60s was concealing between 800g and 1kg of the drug when they arrived on a flight from Malaysia yesterday, he said.

The current street value of the drug, known in New Zealand as P, is about NZ1 million (US800,000) per kilogram, making the haul worth NZ$10 million.

Police describe P as the biggest drug problem in New Zealand, blamed for a large number of murders and other violent crimes.

Day said customs officers found P in the shoes of two members of the group who had been singled out for personal searches.

The rest of the group were then detained and searched and eight more were found to be carrying the drug. “By embedding themselves in what appear to be legitimate tour groups, these criminals are trying to assume normal travel patterns so that they will not be targeted as high risk,” he said.

A tour group from Taiwan had been caught in a similar attempted drug run last year, Day said.

- dpa