Source: Radio New Zealand
Chairperson of the ministerial advisory group on organised crime, Steve Symon. (File photo) RNZ / Nick Monro
The chairperson of a ministerial advisory group on organised crime says he won’t be satisfied until he sees the government commit resources to tackling the issue of organised crime.
The government launched a plan earlier this month to combat transnational organised crime, including setting up a new agency and minister responsible, developing inter-agency information sharing, and establishing a maritime campaign to disrupt criminal networks in the Pacific.
“New Zealand and our Pacific neighbours are being increasingly targeted by organised criminal groups, who are using new technologies and new ways of operating,” Associate Minister of Police Casey Costello said then. “We need a different, stronger and more cohesive response.”
Associate Minister of Police Casey Costello. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Chairperson Steve Symon said he was encouraged to see the government endorse the advisory group’s plan, but wanted to see a commitment in Budget 2026.
“What would make me really satisfied, is if we follow through on it, if what we see in the coming months, is rolling up our sleeves and really mucking in to find out exactly what we need to do to make this work.”
Symon said the picture would become very bleak for New Zealand without a real effort to disrupt criminal networks.
“It’s quite a frightening picture, because organised crime is affecting all New Zealanders, whether we necessarily recognise it or not.”
He said the effects of organised crime were reaching into all corners of New Zealand, whether through a rise in methamphetamine use, fraud and cyber fraud, or migrant exploitation.
Symon pointed to Australia’s response to the illegal tobacco problem – which he said was not quick enough to disrupt what had become a $10 billion industry for criminal groups.
He said the advisory group’s recommendation to set up a new department and minister responsible for the issue, was justified when there could be up to 19 or 30 different agencies involved in addressing the problem right now.
“What we’re saying is the New Zealand public expect a co-ordinated response. It expects these agencies to be working together, in fact the public is right, because we will need that if we are going to successfully stop organised crime.”
University of Canterbury’s Pacific regional security hub head Jose Sousa-Santos said the government and the public should be worried about the influx of drugs at the border.
He said despite larger seizures by customs, the price of methamphetamine remained stable.
“Even though we are seizing more methamphetamine over the past decades combined, you can come to the conclusion there is much more methamphetamine coming in.”
Sousa-Santos said drugs were moving through the Pacific from South America, Canada and South East Asia to New Zealand and Australia.
He said Pacific criminal organised groups were starting to take hold in the region, infiltrating and corrupting law enforcement agencies.
He pointed to one part of the government’s plan, which was to set up a joint customs, GCSB, and Defence Force maritime campaign to disrupt organised criminal groups networks across the Pacific.
He said this could strengthen the region’s national security.
“The Pacific Ocean is a large space to operate in, and this will at least ensure that New Zealand is able to be secure and work with our partners in the Pacific, creating a situation where the regions and our partnerships become force multipliers.
“It’s very important that New Zealand has a lessons learnt policy from our neighbours in the US and South-East Asia.
“The tactics which are new to us – such as the narco subs or the low-profile vessels – these are tactics which have been utilised in America, and South-East Asia for decades.”
Costello said previously that New Zealand needed to improve its responses.
“The key thing I think we need to recognise is that organised crime is a business that will do anything it can to make a profit.
“We need to be pivoting and responding in a far more flexible and responsive way than we currently are.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
