Cash and Crime in New Zealand

Perhaps it should be no surprise that the chairman of New Zealand’s (NZ) Ministerial Advisory Group on Transnational, Serious & Organised Crime should say on a podcast that ‘Cash is the primary currency of organised crime. And so a huge amount of our cash right now, as we sit here, is in the hands of organised crime’.

The Director of the NZ Police National Organised Crime Group says illicit drugs and illicit tobacco are primarily paid for using cash. The police estimate that the use of the drug meth has increased from about NZ$293 million per year to an estimated NZ$533 million in 2025. When expenditure on cocaine, MDMA and cannabis is included, the combined value approaches NZ$800 million annually.