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Supplied/NZ Customs
Approximately 5 kilograms of methamphetamine was found hidden in a rhino statue.
A mother and daughter have been sentenced for their parts in smuggling millions of dollars of drugs, inside everything from clothes to a rhinoceros statue.
Anita Muru, 34, and her 62-year-old mother Dayle Muru, were sentenced on Tuesday at the Manukau District Court.
The younger Muru was given five years and nine months in prison, while her mum was handed a sentence of six months’ community detention and six months’ supervision.
She also forfeited $30,425 seized in the investigation for her role in the smuggling operation.
In April, the 41-year-old who led the operation, Kevin Muru, was given a 10-year and 10-month sentence.
Supplied/NZ Customs
Anita, Kevin and Dayle Muru were part of a smuggling operation that hid drugs inside items like hollowed out books.
Customs discovery of five kilograms of methamphetamine inside a rhinoceros statue sent from South Africa in 2020 kicked off their investigation.
Officers seized more than 16kg of both MDMA and meth from 14 consignments hiding in books, clothes, handbags, cans of cocoa, and tubs of cream.
The parcels came from South Africa, Europe and Asia, where they would be delivered to addresses around the country before being picked up.
Kevin Muru, Anita’s brother, was the brains behind the scheme and communicated with overseas suppliers and arranged the delivery of the address.
Anita helped arrange shipments, paying customs charges and helped find delivery addresses while she also directed people to help those picking up the drugs.
Meanwhile, their mother helped collect packages for money and allowed her apartment to be used to store the drugs and cash.
Customs estimates the seizure could have produced around 825,000 doses of meth and enough MDMA for 128,000 individual doses.
The drugs had an estimated street value of between $9.8 million and $13.2m, according to Customs.
Customs investigation manager Cam Moore said opportunistic groups, like families, were known to “set up criminal businesses to make money out of the misery they cause our communities”.
“Stopping these quantities of methamphetamine and MDMA ecstasy prevented around $18.5m dollars’ worth of harm reaching communities in Aotearoa,” Customs Investigation Manager Cam Moore said.
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