CLOSE EYE ON PARCELS IS IMPORTANT PART OF WAR ON DRUGS

The Herald's War on P series last year produced an overwhelming
reaction from readers and a swift response from the Government. This
week, we revisit the people and the issues to find out what has changed.

As a line of parcels moves along a conveyor belt at Auckland's
International Mail Centre, customs officer Jason John's eyes flick
between the packages and the x-ray image.

He's looking for clues to suspicious deliveries, including any
discrepancies between the address and contents label and what he can
see on the screen.

On the morning of the Herald's visit last month, Mr John pulls aside a
package from the Netherlands listed as containing CDs and chocolate.

He carefully cuts through the cardboard and opens the Christmas
wrapping to get a closer look at the small objects visible on top of
the CDs.

It's worth checking, explains his supervisor Holly Stringer, as the
Netherlands is a popular source country for Ecstasy and a lot of
partygoers like to stock up for the New Year.

It would be easy to send a few packets of the drug, disguised as
chocolate, and hope they get through in the pre-Christmas rush.

The parcel turns out to be what it says it is - CDs and chocolate - so
Mr John rewraps it and sends it on its way.

Customs northern ports manager Simon Williamson says that most mail
identified through this profiling technique is genuine.

But it is essential that customs staff check the 60 million items
which pass through the Auckland Airport mail centre each year.

About 10 per cent are examined for possible drugs or other banned
content and 1 per cent turn out to be illegal.

Close to 90 per cent of the drug seizures are pseudoephedrine, the
main ingredient of P, which comes from China, so parcels from that
country get special attention.

Other giveaways are sketchy addresses, such as a Christian name and a
phone number.

Sometimes smugglers go to great lengths to avoid detection, hiding
pseudoephedrine inside bottles of talcum powder or Christmas
decorations.

But often they make no attempt to hide the drugs, relying on the sheer
volume of parcels sent to get some of the drugs through, says Ms Stringer.