Category: DJF

Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealand Customs has warned tobacco smuggling is becoming more organised, large-scale and sophisticated, with the government pledging to stop the country following Australia into tobacco gangland warfare.

But a public health professor says while criminal involvement is a concern, there is no evidence of a dramatic increase in the size of the tobacco black market.

Chief customs officer for fraud and prohibition Nigel Barnes said seizures have been trending upwards over the past decade, though there have been fluctuations due to large busts.

In 2025, Customs seized 11.1 million illegal cigarettes and cigars, and 5.4 tonnes of loose tobacco, compared to 9.2 million illegal cigarettes and cigars, and 2.7 tonnes of loose tobacco in 2024.

In 2022, 4.8 million cigarettes were seized, and 3.6 tonnes of loose tobacco.

Barnes said illicit cigarette seizures in 2025 represented about $16 million in tax revenue evasion.

“That’s just the stuff we’ve seized.”

He said illegal cigarettes were selling here for between $20 and $25 in diaries, liquor stores and pop-up outlets throughout the country. A legal packet costs between $40 and $50.

“Obviously, there’s a significant-size market in Auckland, but we’ve identified illicit tobacco distribution networks in regional centres as well, as far afield as the South Island and Gisborne.”

Barnes said the increase in seizures partly reflected a $10.4m funding boost in 2022 and the establishment of a dedicated illegal tobacco investigations team.

But the involvement of transnational and serious organised crime groups concerned him.

“Tobacco smuggling into New Zealand is becoming more organised, large-scale and sophisticated.”

Criminals were increasingly adding tobacco to their drug and money laundering operations, he said, and smugglers were masking themselves under shell companies.

Officials had seized drugs, firearms and other weapons, as well as large amounts of cash in investigations.

In 2023, Customs arrested three Malaysian nationals who travelled to New Zealand to smuggle tobacco into the country. When officials did some digging, they found out the trio had the same operation in Australia.

Agents also discovered a large illegal cigarette manufacturing operation in 2024 in Christchurch, where a man had imported loose tobacco under the guise of tea, setting up machinery to make individual cigarettes, boxes of cigarettes and cigarette branded labels.

Barnes said the trajectory of Australia’s black market for tobacco was “particularly concerning” for New Zealand.

“We’re in contact regularly with our Australian counterparts, and the trajectory of the illicit tobacco market in Australia is particularly concerning, mostly because New Zealand and Australia have the highest excise rates in the Asia-Pacific region. So if it could happen there, it could happen here, is a kind of a theory.

“The standovers and firebombs that are getting reported on in Australia are particularly concerning for us.”

Barnes said Customs was doing everything it could to prevent New Zealand following Australia’s path.

Deaths, threats and firebombs in Australia

In Australia, the illegal cigarette black market has developed into a violent and fast-growing criminal market, to the point where rival gangs are fighting over, and threatening retailers to sell illegal products.

Criminal groups have committed more than 200 arson attacks at retailers, and at least three homicides since 2023, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission said.

It found that illicit tobacco linked to serious and/organised crime cost the Australian economy about $4 billion (NZ$4.8b) in 2023-2024.

Associate professor of criminal justice at Bond University, Dr Terry Goldsworthy, said the black market had infiltrated most parts of the country.

“It was problematic in just a couple of states – but we’ve now seen responses from almost every Australian state, trying to address it.”

It triggered the formation of a federal Tobacco National Disruption group formed by the Albanese government, Goldsworthy said, led by the Australian Border Force and including every state’s police force.

Goldsworthy said arson and standover tactics had caused concern in many communities.

“They’ll go there and stand over the people and get them to sell their products, if they don’t sell their products, then they take the action of either assaulting the people who work there, or they firebomb the place to take it out of business.”

Steve Symon, who headed a ministerial advisory group on organised crime last year, said New Zealand risked following Australia’s path into a serious criminal black market.

“What’s happening there, will happen in New Zealand in 12-18 months, because our conditions are really similar – in terms of our willingness to pay high prices for illicit substances whether it be methamphetamine or cocaine, but the same thing with cigarettes.”

He said organised criminal groups in Australia setting up shop here was also alarming.

“What we see in Australia – it’s very likely, we’ll see here.”

He said illegal cigarettes were funding the operations of more serious, organised crime, and New Zealand needed to address the problem urgently.

“It’s not just you getting a cheap packet of cigarettes, what you are doing is contributing to people who are incentivised to bring the worst types of crime into our community.”

Size of black market contested

The size of New Zealand’s illicit market was not clear, with studies backed by various groups estimating wildly different sizes.

One study from 2025, commissioned by Imperial Tobacco New Zealand and British American Tobacco New Zealand, claimed the size of the illicit market was at 25 percent, but health expert Chris Bullen said his research from 2023 showed it was likely between 5 and 7 percent of the market.

“It’s an illicit trade, so it’s covert activity, it’s really hard to get a handle on what’s going on.”

The professor of public health at the University of Auckland said there was not clear evidence of a dramatic increase in the black market in New Zealand, and smoking rates were dropping among the population.

He said increasing the price of tobacco products had had a dramatic effect on driving down smoking and on people’s health.

Customs seizures did not necessarily indicate the problem was getting worse, Bullen said, but that officers were getting better at intercepting product at the border.

New Zealand had a different tobacco environment to Australia, where vapes were illegal, and the country was closer to the Asian market, he said.

What he wanted was more investment in research monitoring the black market so trends over time could be measured.

“It’s one of those things like wastewater monitoring for methamphetamine – it’s a reasonable thing to do to try and track what’s going on in the population, rather than just hoping that it will go away.

“I think it is wise for the government to be aware that across the ditch, it is a big problem.”

Customs Minister Casey Costello said Customs’ increased seizures signalled the country was facing a growing black market.

“We are very aware of what has occurred in Australia, where we have seen an explosion in the scale of the black market for tobacco and associated challenges with the organised crime groups driving that explosion.

“We cannot let that happen here”.

She said the government would use all the tools it could to disrupt organised crime groups.

“There are also further regulatory options within our tobacco control regime that can support our efforts to tackle illicit tobacco sales.

“I have asked for further advice from the Ministry of Health about how our regulatory regime can be strengthened to effectively manage the sales of illicit tobacco that has made it into New Zealand.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/16/fears-nzs-tobacco-black-market-will-get-as-bad-as-australias/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Conservation groups are calling for action to reduce dolphin deaths off Canterbury’s coastline.

A female Hector’s dolphin was killed in a set net off Kaikōura’s coast and discarded last month, according to the Department of Conservation’s (DOC) database.

DOC figures show 14 out of 24 reported dolphin deaths off New Zealand’s coastline over the past two years were in the Canterbury region, including four in Kaikōura.

Seven were due to entanglement in set nets, two from bycatch, three from beachcasting, one by stranding and one was found floating at sea.

The endangered species has an estimated population of 15,700.

Conservationists want more effective rule enforcement, an extension of set-net bans, and better protections in marine areas and reserves.

Forest & Bird Canterbury / West Coast regional conservation manager Nicky Snoyink said dolphin deaths are avoidable.

”It’s a terrible thing to hear these dolphins are dying out and we do so much better.”

Kaikōura Wildlife Centre Trust manager Sabrina Luecht was also concerned by dolphin deaths.

”Effective marine habitat protection, responsible fishing and accountability are imperative in ensuring these precious taonga persist in our region long-term.”

Greanpeace oceans campaigner Juan Parada said the government should ban trawling in dolphin habitats and commit to cameras on the full fishing fleet.

”Even when not directly caught in the nets, trawling degrades the habitats that animals like Hector dolphins and hoiho (yellow-eyed penguins) depend on for food.

”With fewer fish, surviving animals are left hungrier.”

Environment Canterbury (ECan) councillor Genevieve Robinson has been calling on the council to update the 20-year-old Canterbury Regional Coastal Environment Plan.

ECan acting regional planning manager Lisa Jenkins said the role for regional councils under the resource management reform had yet to be clarified.

”Once national direction has been confirmed, options for coastal management will be developed through a public process.”

The coastal plan works alongside the Wildlife Act and the Biosecurity Act to protect the region’s biodiversity.

Fisheries New Zealand and DOC are responsible for managing the risks to Hector’s dolphins.

DOC senior science advisor marine Anton van Helden said the department’s role included addressing the threat of toxoplasmosis (a parasitic disease), managing marine mammal sanctuaries, education, research and managing threats to dolphins.

Fisheries NZ fisheries management director Emma Taylor said Canterbury has the largest populations of Hector’s dolphins.

Set net closures are enforced off Pegasus Bay, the Canterbury Bight, Banks Peninsula and Kaikōura.

Other measures include working with commercial fishing boats to improve bycatch mitigation and the use of on-board cameras.

– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/16/dolphins-death-spurs-calls-for-greater-protection/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Warning: This story contains details of an alleged sexual assault.

A man accused of taking a teenager 17 years his junior to a bach and then sexually violating him while the young man was intoxicated has pleaded not guilty.

The accused, who has name suppression, is facing one charge of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection between 1994 and 1995.

In her opening address at Christchurch District Court, Crown prosecutor Penny Brown said the complainant, who was 18 or 19 years old, claimed the pair drank and smoked cannabis at the Lake Coleridge bach, with the complainant becoming so intoxicated he thought he might have been drugged.

He said the accused, who was 17 years older than him, helped him to bed and to remove his clothes other than his boxer shorts and a T-shirt.

The complainant said he woke and found himself face down with his hips propped up over cushions, and the accused sexually violating him.

“The defendant said he felt like a child, like a child who was supposed to be seen and not heard,” Brown said, “and while it registered to him that it should not be happening, he could not muster any type of fright or flight response. He just froze and let it happen.”

The complainant did not tell anyone until around 2000 when he revealed what had happened to his ex-wife.

Brown said the complainant did not report it to the police until 2020, by which time she said his life had derailed and he was due to be sentenced for serious offending.

He told the person preparing his pre-sentence report he had been sexually abused.

In 2021, prison staff got in touch with police to say the complainant wanted to speak to someone about the allegations, and a video interview was made.

On Monday afternoon the video interview will be played to the jury. In the video, the man said he knew the accused was gay, but had no issue with that.

On the night of the alleged abuse the accused put on gay pornography, but the younger man asked him to turn it off. The older man said he should watch it for a bit and he might like it.

The complaint left the room, and when he returned the video was off.

He said on the night the accused made all of the drinks in another room, and at the time he just thought the man was being a good host.

“Looking back, why wasn’t the Coke and [stuff] sitting there with us?”

He said he had been drunk and smoked marijuana before, but on this occasion he could not get his body to move properly and his feet were dragging.

The complainant said the next day the accused acted like nothing had happened.

In the defence’s opening address, lawyer Ryan Jones said the accused accepted he took the young man to the bach but said no sexual activity and no sexual abuse occurred.

He said the case was not straightforward, and it should be remembered that the defendant was presumed innocent until proved otherwise.

The trial continues.

Where to get help

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/16/man-denies-sexually-assaulting-drunk-teen-in-mid-1990s/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Warning: This story deals with sexual violence.

Lengthy prison sentences for two of Christchurch’s most prolific sex offenders have been upheld by a High Court judge.

Danny and Roberto Jaz were convicted in 2023 of 69 charges, including sexual assault, rape, stupefaction, disabling, sexual violation and indecent assault.

The case garnered international attention after details emerged showing how the brothers had systematically targeted young women at their family businesses over several years.

Many of their 23 victims were staff or patrons of Mama Hooch bar on Colombo Street, or nearby restaurant Venuti.

The brothers were each sentenced to more than 16 years in jail, with non-parole periods of half their sentences.

At sentencing, Judge Paul Mabey told the men the level of their offending was unprecedented in New Zealand.

“You helped yourself to young women with callous disregard for their rights and their dignity, their youth,” Judge Mabey said.

The pair appealed the convictions, claiming Judge Mabey was biased, made errors assessing evidence and breached their fair trial rights by refusing to allow closing submissions.

Danny Jaz also appealed his sentence on the basis he did not receive sufficient credit for pleading guilty.

At appeal, the brothers’ lawyer Ron Mansfield KC told the court his clients did not get a fair hearing, which had led to a significant miscarriage of justice.

All appeals, except for three charges against Roberto Jaz for making an intimate visual recording, failed.

In his decision, which was reserved until Monday, Justice Cameron Mander dismissed the sentence appeal as without merit.

Despite the guilty plea, Danny Jaz showed “no remorse or acceptance of the harm he caused his victims”, he said.

Thirteen of the 14 complainants associated with those charges were still required to attend court and give evidence about “distressing matters” because Jaz continued to deny other related charges of drugging and disabling those same women, he noted.

Justice Mander also dismissed both brothers’ appeal of their conviction, with the exception of three “lesser” charges against Roberto Jaz of making an intimate visual recording, which were quashed.

However, his sentence – 17 years’ imprisonment, with a minimum period of eight years and six months – remained unchanged.

The total starting points for Roberto’s original sentences aggregated to 41 years, and the judge had already significantly reduced that to 17 years, Justice Mander said.

“When viewed overall, I do not consider the final 17-year sentence is required to be adjusted.”

Justice Mander described the trial judge’s decision to skip closing arguments as “unadvised” and demonstrating a “lack of procedural prudence”, noting that the judge appeared to have become distracted by the need to prioritise the start of a second trial.

However, “an appellant must be able to demonstrate that, as a consequence of the error or irregularity, their trial was unfair”, he said.

Where to get help:

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/16/mama-hooch-rapists-danny-and-roberto-jazs-appeals-dismissed/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Warning: This story deals with sexual violence.

Lengthy prison sentences for two of Christchurch’s most prolific sex offenders have been upheld by a High Court judge.

Danny and Roberto Jaz were convicted in 2023 of 69 charges, including sexual assault, rape, stupefaction, disabling, sexual violation and indecent assault.

The case garnered international attention after details emerged showing how the brothers had systematically targeted young women at their family businesses over several years.

Many of their 23 victims were staff or patrons of Mama Hooch bar on Colombo Street, or nearby restaurant Venuti.

The brothers were each sentenced to more than 16 years in jail, with non-parole periods of half their sentences.

At sentencing, Judge Paul Mabey told the men the level of their offending was unprecedented in New Zealand.

“You helped yourself to young women with callous disregard for their rights and their dignity, their youth,” Judge Mabey said.

The pair appealed the convictions, claiming Judge Mabey was biased, made errors assessing evidence and breached their fair trial rights by refusing to allow closing submissions.

Danny Jaz also appealed his sentence on the basis he did not receive sufficient credit for pleading guilty.

At appeal, the brothers’ lawyer Ron Mansfield KC told the court his clients did not get a fair hearing, which had led to a significant miscarriage of justice.

All appeals, except for three charges against Roberto Jaz for making an intimate visual recording, failed.

In his decision, which was reserved until Monday, Justice Cameron Mander dismissed the sentence appeal as without merit.

Despite the guilty plea, Danny Jaz showed “no remorse or acceptance of the harm he caused his victims”, he said.

Thirteen of the 14 complainants associated with those charges were still required to attend court and give evidence about “distressing matters” because Jaz continued to deny other related charges of drugging and disabling those same women, he noted.

Justice Mander also dismissed both brothers’ appeal of their conviction, with the exception of three “lesser” charges against Roberto Jaz of making an intimate visual recording, which were quashed.

However, his sentence – 17 years’ imprisonment, with a minimum period of eight years and six months – remained unchanged.

The total starting points for Roberto’s original sentences aggregated to 41 years, and the judge had already significantly reduced that to 17 years, Justice Mander said.

“When viewed overall, I do not consider the final 17-year sentence is required to be adjusted.”

Justice Mander described the trial judge’s decision to skip closing arguments as “unadvised” and demonstrating a “lack of procedural prudence”, noting that the judge appeared to have become distracted by the need to prioritise the start of a second trial.

However, “an appellant must be able to demonstrate that, as a consequence of the error or irregularity, their trial was unfair”, he said.

Where to get help:

• Need to Talk? Free call or text 1737 any time to speak to a trained counsellor, for any reason.
• Lifeline: 0800 543 354 or text HELP to 4357
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 / 0508 TAUTOKO (24/7). This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends.
• Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757 (24/7) or text 4202
• Samaritans: 0800 726 666 (24/7)
• Youthline: 0800 376 633 (24/7) or free text 234 (8am-12am), or email talk@youthline.co.nz|
• What’s Up: free counselling for 5 to 19 years old, online chat 11am-10.30pm 7 days/week or free phone 0800 WHATSUP / 0800 9428 787 11am-11pm
• Asian Family Services: 0800 862 342 Monday to Friday 9am to 8pm or text 832 Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm. Languages spoken: Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and English.
• Rural Support Trust Helpline: 0800 787 254
• Healthline: 0800 611 116
• Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155
• OUTLine: 0800 688 5463 (6pm-9pm)

If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/03/16/mama-hooch-rapists-appeals-dismissed/