The first rule of magic tricks is distraction.
Now, we can only assume that’s what these drug smugglers were going for when they tried to import $13 million worth of cocaine into New Zealand via a diamante-encrusted horse head (which, tbqh with you, looks like it was constructed by someone who only had the vaguest idea of what a horse looked like).
Unfortunately, their ruse didn’t work; NZ police busted the haul when the 400kg sculpture attracted the attention of customs officers.
Honestly, if this isn’t a derp head if I’ve ever seen one.
Cops found 35 bricks of high-grade cocaine inside, and after a six-week investigation, have now arrested three men in relation to the coked-up equine: a Mexican and an American who were detained in Aukland as they tried to fly for Hawaii, and another Mexican who was detained in Christchurch.
All three men have been charged with importing and possession for supply of a class A drug, which carries a life sentence.
Police reckon the coke was making its way to Christchurch, where the mass rebuild following the 2011 earthquake has attracted workers from all over the world.
“While it’s possible that this statue may have been sent on to another country, but there’s every possibility that the cocaine was destined for the New Zealand market and we would be naïve to think otherwise” says Detective Senior Sergeant Colin Parmenter, Officer in Charge, Organised Crime Auckland.
Photo: Supplied.
