Some lollies which were handed out at Auckland City Mission turned out to be methamphetamine. Photo: Supplied / Sarita Kaukau
Small blocks of meth disguised as pineapple lollies may be linked to Mexican cartels with ties to New Zealand gangs, a researcher says.
The 'lollies' were donated to the Auckland City Mission's Boston Road site and then distributed in 428 food parcels earlier this month.
Earlier this week three people, including a charity worker, were hospitalised after consuming the candy, and police said another child was taken for precautionary medical checks.
A second charity worker from Ronald McDonald House which had received two City Mission food parcels was taken to hospital after tasting one on Thursday and was now recovering at home.
Dr Chris Wilkins, the head of the illicit drug monitoring system at Massey University, said the incident was like joining pieces of a puzzle together, but an important factor was the relatively new source of meth supply.
Meth lollies may be linked to Mexican cartels: Researcher
For a long time most of New Zealand's supplies came from southeast Asia, an area known as the Golden Triangle near Thailand.
In Australia recently there had been very large seizures of liquid meth which had been coming from Mexico and linked to the cartels, he told Morning Report.
"The recent lolly situation here is a kind of a smuggling technique that has been used by Mexican cartels."
He suspected there were already ties between the Mexican cartels and New Zealand gangs.
The Mexican cartels were able to gain a foothold because they were selling at much lower prices - just a third - compared with the Asian dealers.
"There's all kinds of changes in terms of markets that are now available to international drug trafficking gangs with the war in Ukraine and things like that."
Authorities were faced with trying to put together the pieces, however, the composition of the meth might provide clues on its source.
Dr Wilkins suspected it was a "smuggling mistake" that the 'lollies' ended up with the City Mission.
The concentrated form of the drug was converted, perhaps into liquid form, and put into a legal product to get it over the border.
Then it was rediluted into a form for retail sale.
"So I think what's most likely happened here is that the catcher who is supposed to intercept the drugs once they get over the border has either missed the package or hasn't done their job and this has gone missing somewhere in circulation and then it's just by chance ended up with the City Mission."
While the image of the cartels was of sophisticated operators, those responsible for intercepting the drugs were often amateurs or "expendable parts of the organisation", Dr Wilkins said.
Police said they had recovered 31 blocks of meth disguised as branded lollies, with another due to be collected yesterday, bringing the total to 32.
Police refused to be interviewed on Morning Report on Friday.
Auckland City Mission staff had tried to contact all 428 families who received the parcels, but had only managed to speak to 100 so far, city missioner Helen Robinson told Checkpoint.
Claims that someone was trying to sell one on Facebook's Marketplace were being checked out by police, she said.