29168 (2025). Hon Jenny Salesa to the Minister of Customs

29168 (2025). Hon Jenny Salesa to the Minister of Customs: What changes, if any, have been made to Customs’ container scanning, AI risk assessment, or physical inspection regimes since January 2024 to respond to the rise in methamphetamine trafficking?

Hon Casey Costello: I am advised that since January 2024, the New Zealand Customs Service (Customs) has started to develop and deploy data science models to augment their traditional targeting rules that are used to screen transactions for prohibited goods, such as methamphetamine. Customs has also significantly increased its presence at maritime ports across the country with frequent patrols by Customs officers to combat transnational and serious organised crime by actively looking for anomalies around port environments. As a result of targeting ships related to transnational and serious organised crime high risk locations, Customs has undertaken concentrated container x-ray scanning at both Tauranga and Lyttelton ports since September 2024.