New Zealand Police are aware of a drug bust in Panama that resulted in the seizure of illicit substances bound for the Port of Tauranga.

Inquiries are now underway regarding the seizure, performed by a narcotics police taskforce at the Port of Cristóbal in Colón, Panama.

The Public Ministry/Prosecutor's Office of Panama confirms in a statement that SENAN and CROAN, two of Panama's aeronaval services, took seizure of items on a merchant ship on Friday, October 22 – with assistance from the Drug Prosecutor's Office of Colón.

The ship was transiting through Panama, on its way from the Brazilian port of Manaus, to the Port of Tauranga in New Zealand.

According to reports from Agencia EFE, the ship was inspected after the detection of tampering on a shipping container seal.

'We have managed to locate and secure a certain amount of packages of presumed illicit substance hidden in a container, onboard a merchant ship in a port terminal in Colón,” says a statement from SENAN.

They report a total of 38 packages, containing a further 1254 packages of an 'alleged illicit substance”, have been seized.

'New Zealand police is making inquiries through our international partners in relation to this matter,” says a NZ police spokesperson.

'As such we have no further comment at this time.”

Customs New Zealand confirm that the operation was carried out under sole jurisdiction by Panamanian authorities.

'This was a seizure of illicit substances by Panamanian authorities, it was not part of an ongoing international investigation with New Zealand,” says New Zealand Customs senior communications advisor Michael Smith.

'We do maintain close contact with law enforcement agencies in the region but in this instance, New Zealand Customs was not involved.”

Panama's central location in the Americas and access route via the Panama Canal makes it a hub for drug trafficking.

In a statement on their website, SENAN state that during the period from 2021 to date, they have confiscated a total of 65,547 packages of illicit substances through the execution of 117 operations.