How buying drugs online became as easy as ordering pizza

Sunday, 24 August 2025

Behind glossy online listings and doorstep deliveries lies a deadly trade: cocaine is flooding New Zealand and even the associate police minister concedes it’s not a war the country is winning. Virginia Fallon reports.

From go to whoa, it all takes less than an hour.

Open an app, scroll through the listings; flick through pictures, prices and specials; maybe read a few customer reviews.

A couple of short messages later - a bit of back and forth - and it’s sorted: no alleyway meet-ups, no coded exchanges; just a friendly courier on their way to your door.

Think of it like ordering pizza, but instead it’s cocaine.

Right now, New Zealand is experiencing a drug crisis on all fronts. Even as record hauls of Class A drugs are being seized at the nation’s borders, consumption is exploding within them.

Outside the country, cartels have identified Aotearoa as one of the most lucrative drug markets in the world and are vying to push their products deeper into it.

Cocaine, once scarce here, is now a drug scene staple. The highly addictive stimulant is derived from the coca plant of South America where deadly organised crime organisations control everything from cultivation to export.

And although Associate Police Minister Casey Costello stops short of admitting that NZ has lost the war on drugs, she does come surprisingly, refreshingly, close.

“If we took a cold hard look at reality, we've seen our wastewater results spike last year, we hit a peak in October, which would suggest that no, we're not winning.”

Online, the evidence is plain to see.

Brightly coloured ads that could just as easily be flogging vape juice or fast food, are instead promoting everything from cocaine to methamphetamine, LSD to MDMA, using web servers to reach their customers.

It’s a method that’s fast, polished, and according to police increasingly on the rise.

“Police are seeing a steady increase in illegal sales being conducted through social media platforms, ” says Detective Sergeant Jonathan Wylde from the National Criminal Investigation Group.

“Offenders are increasingly using encrypted apps and other tools to conceal their identities, making these activities difficult to trace.”

But finding the marketplace, at least, is easy for those in the know.

One of them, who obviously wants to remain anonymous, took the Sunday Star-Times through the process.

“It’s usually invite only, someone already in the groups has to add you - sometimes through a QR code which you scan.”

Also usually, she says, new buyers need to be endorsed by a known one: an assurance to the seller they’re not dealing “with a cop or someone who’s going to stand them over and take their drugs.”

Introductions complete, the online shopping begins. Screenshots show listings that look more like takeaway menus than black-market dealing: bold fonts, price lists, emojis and mascots.

There are specials for bulk buys, glowing testimonials from happy customers and even free home drop-offs.

Is our buyer worried about safety? A dodgy dealer at their door?

“Not at all. Everyone is always really friendly. The way it works is that if they’re not, then the word goes around and they just won’t get any more business.”

Another buyer says the groups, and as such the sellers, pride themselves on their customer service.

“They treat it like a proper business. If the driver’s running late you’ll get an apology and sometimes even a discount on your next order.

“If something’s not right with the product, they’ll replace it. I’ve even seen them do loyalty deals: buy four, get one free.”

Back online, the branding is as brazen as the business. One ad features Batman looming over a pile of cash, guaranteeing both “proper coca” and “vouched and approved”.

Others ads are splashed with neon emojis, assertions of a “clean asf high”, “straight off the brick” and promises “you will not be disappointed”.

The tone is less underworld, more online shopping, and the effect is surreal: Class A drugs presented with the same glossy confidence as any other product.

Experts say that isn’t just about marketing - it’s about normalising.

Bodo Lang, professor of marketing analytics at Massey University, reckons the dealers have got it down-pat.

“They’re using all the mainstream marketing principles: if you blend out what the product is, this is how marketing needs to be done.”

Sure, he says, the ads are a long way from the work of a professional marketing agency but the use of pop culture icons and assurances of safety and quality hit all the right notes.

“And it’s delivered to your front porch? Fantastic, how could you not buy it?”

All joking aside, Lang says the result is both chilling and seductive, a way of making hard drugs feel akin to ordering skincare or a kebab.

“Really, there are lots of good marketing techniques being used to peddle a dangerous and deadly product. I’m amazed they can get away with it.”

Detective Sergeant Jonathan Wylde from the National Criminal Investigation Group also believes the pitches are no accident.

“These ads use content from mainstream media - memes and cartoons - and I feel that's an attempt to make a higher class of drug appear less intimidating and more appealing to a younger audience - it seems more fun.”

As for getting away with it? Wylde cautions it’s very much a case of buyer - and dealer - beware.

While most of the platforms provide a degree of encryption enabling some anonymity, it’s a barrier police still breach.

“Many of these drug suppliers do feel safe but it's a false sense of security. In no means are they immune from identification and prosecution - we hold these people to account on a very regular basis.”

Buyers, meanwhile, face risks that you won’t see advertised in the neon-emoji sales talk.

“We periodically see, or are notified of cases, of what's referred to as a ganking - a term popularised in the states - in other words aggravated robbery.

“The so-called supplier arranges a meeting with a prospective buyer and on their arrival either threatens or seriously assaults them - in many cases with weapons - in order to steal their cash.”

The offenders prey on the fact that prospective customers are less likely to report it to police given the nature of their original meeting, he says.

“I would certainly tell any buyers who are active in this space to tread with caution and that if they do fall victim to an aggravated robbery they should well and truly come forward ….”

Asked a very hypothetical question - “so if someone was buying, say, 200g of cocaine and got robbed, would they get in trouble with the cops?” - Wylde is first amused then reassuring.

“We wouldn't be looking at investigating or prosecuting them in any sense unless there's some absolute overt offending we need to address.

“The primary concern is the offence they have fallen victim to…”

But even when deals go as planned, the danger remains. Products aren’t tested or regulated; buyers have no way of knowing what they’re actually consuming.

“Some of these people I've heard anecdotally about - ranged 16 to 20 - are having extremely close calls with accidental overdoses.

“The underlying risk is you don't know what you're taking, what's been added, where it’s been sourced or how many hands have been in the pie.”

Costello, meanwhile, agrees that it’s both a health and enforcement challenge but also a full-scale incursion.

“This is an epidemic of drug use that’s being supply-driven, not just demand-driven. They’re creating markets, and they will use whatever mechanism they can to do it. We are dealing with big, organised businesses.”

Costello is backed up by the findings from a Ministerial Advisory Group she set up in February in response to the issue.

The group has already reported the Pacific Islands are being seriously targeted by transnational organised crime groups who are using its waters as a 'corridor' for drug shipments, while corruption is “growing in scope and sophistication”.

“…there is a real risk the nurturing corruption environment will lead to organised crime groups becoming entrenched and dominating all aspects of society to the point where it becomes impossible to stop a series of narco- states being established on New Zealand’s doorstep.”

In its latest report, the group found a lack of information sharing between government agencies, and the private sector, is the greatest barrier to tackling organised crime.

“As we have said before – organised crime can move at the speed of digital technology, but enforcement agencies can only move at the speed of the law,” the panel wrote in July.

“The public reasonably expects government agencies to use information that it has collected to lawfully target organised crime, both domestically and internationally. That requires the information to be proactively shared. That is not happening.

“There also appears to be a deeply rooted culture of a risk-averse approach towards proactive sharing of information.”

Costello says there needs to be a “bit of a mind-set change in our government agencies” when it comes to interpreting privacy laws.

“The Privacy Commission has impacted how we do things which isn't necessarily how the legislation was intended - it's to provide information to protect but not to stop us from using it for the prevention of harm and criminal investigations.

“You err on the side of caution because you can't get in trouble for doing nothing, but you can for doing the wrong thing, so that's the balance we need to strike.”

And there have been successes. Costello is quick to praise those on the front-line and notes that in recent months wastewater results have started to edge down.

“I’m definitely not saying we’ve won,” she says, “but we are making an impact. I just think we can do a lot more by being better connected and focused on our common enemy.”

But when it comes to that enemy, economics show just what’s as stake.

According to a recent DEA report, a kilo of cocaine costs around NZ$7500 in Mexico, $13,500 in the US, $107k in Australia — and up to $180k here.

Right now, according to those illicit online ads, half a gram of cocaine will set you back around $200; a whole gram $350.

Cocaine not your poison? LSD — the subject of a record-breaking July bust that saw 40,800 tabs seized in Auckland, with a street value north of $1m — is listed at $120 for five tabs, or $200 for 10. Drop-offs available.

Good old weed, meanwhile, appears to have taken a nose-dive: $220 for an ounce, though with a warning: “no ticks. no swaps/deals/trades, no f…arounds”.

It’s the kind of disclaimer more often seen on a Trade Me auction than a Class C drug, and one that underlines the surreal mix of commerce and criminality now playing out online.

And just as it’s easier than ever to score hard drugs, the damage on families, communities and a health system already stretched thin has never been greater.

Drug Foundation executive director Sarah Helm says more than ever before, due to the sharp increase in consumption of methamphetamine and cocaine, our support services were strained by decades of under-funding.

“The big surge in use means we need to urgently invest in harm reduction and addiction support.”

It’s not only services but laws that the foundation wants to see improved.

“It’s clear that overly relying on supply-side interventions like drug busts and border seizures isn’t moving the dial.”

Helm cites the Ministerial Advisory Group that’s likened NZ’s current approach to 'rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic’ and called for ‘new ways of thinking and bold changes’ if we’re to change course.

“They point out that a prevention-led approach that looks to reduce demand is ‘far more cost-effective than an enforcement only approach’,” she says.

“It’s clear to anyone looking at the data – the increase in harm, increase in overdoses, and the increased toxicity of our drug supply – that our 50-year-old drug laws aren’t fit for purpose. If we do nothing, things are going to get worse.”

Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has long been a loud voice on the need for drug law reform. She says the country needs to be able to have rational debates about drug policy, guided by evidence rather than fear.

It’s a subject she speaks about with breadth, drawing on both local and international examples and rafts of research that leaves this interviewer scrambling to keep up.

To compress that into a few paragraphs seems a little unfair but her central point is clear.

“The evidence tells us the approach we’re taking right now is maximising drug harm,” she says.

“The most basic starting point is to recognise that criminal prohibition is not working; we need health, not handcuffs.”

Swarbrick argues that whether the substance is alcohol, tobacco or “something illicit”, the way to reduce harm is through sensible, evidence-based regulation.

No, she says, that doesn’t mean a free-for-all on narcotics, but an acceptance that no country has ever eliminated them, no matter how heavy the penalties.

“We need to be grown-ups about the fact drugs exist.

“Criminal prohibition has often made things worse by pushing people further from help. Who’s going to put their hand up and ask for support if they know it ends with handcuffs?”

Finally, Swarbrick is good-humoured enough to distil it into a sharp little sound bite: “Drugs are winning the war on drugs.”

Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey says his focus is on reducing drug harm by making treatment faster and easier to access.

The first minister in the role, he says prevention and early intervention are central, because “we know by improving access to support sooner, we can significantly improve recovery outcomes and prevent further harm”.

Cutting long waitlists is also a priority, he said in a statement.

“I am very clear that when someone is making the brave step of reaching out to get support, that support should be available.

“Whether it’s you, your child, a friend or a family member reaching out for support, this Government is committed to ensuring support is there.”

But in the meantime, the drugs are there too.

On Thursday, as politicians commented, health leaders warned, a marketing expert shook his head, and police carried on with their game of whack-a-mole, yet another bright ad popped up on a server.

A “Nearly Friday special”, it says: cocaine complete with emojis, reviews, and a picture, this time, of a very cheerful snowman.

“Sweet clean high, free delivery.”