The 35-year-old man arrived Auckland Airport at the end of May after spending more than a month overseas. Photo: LDR / Stuff / Stephen Forbes
A man has been jailed for what investigators say was one of their largest hauls of objectionable material ever seized at Auckland Airport.
The 35-year-old Auckland man arrived at the end of May after spending more than a month overseas. During a search, customs officers found several electronic devices and multiple electronic storage devices in his possession.
A total of 21,482 objectionable images and video files were found across six devices.
Over 15,000 of them were of child sexual exploitation, with about 40-percent falling into the most extreme categories involving children and infants.
Customs said the man was identified this individual as a person of interest back in 2024. The moment he re-entered New Zealand in May, Customs officers interviewed and arrested him on site at the border, Chief Customs Officer, Child Exploitation Operations Team, Simon Peterson said.
"This operation resulted in one of the largest intercepts of objectionable publications at the air border. The material he carried was deeply disturbing and included some of the most extreme child sexual abuse content known to law enforcement worldwide," Peterson said.
"Offending of this nature is never victimless. These are not simply illicit images or videos - they document real children being horrifically abused. Every time this material circulates, it perpetuates harm and trauma or those victims."
The man was sentenced in the Auckland District Court on Tuesday to three years and nine-and-a-half months jail.