Police have seized 36kg of cocaine found stashed in a container delivered to an Auckland business.

Detective Senior Sergeant Jason Hunt said staff found the package while unloading legitimate goods shipped from Brazil.

“It was in bags on the top of the legitimate product in the container,” Hunt said.

Police were contacted, and National Organised Crime Group detectives were soon on site, seizing 36kg of cocaine worth about $12.6 million.

“This is a prime example of a ‘rip on’ or ‘rip off’ importation to try and sneak drugs into New Zealand,” Hunt said.

“It’s a common method used by criminal groups where they exploit the bona-fide details of a legitimate company’s import.”

The cocaine was found in plastic bags, on top of legitimate product in the container. Photo / NZ Police

An investigation is underway to identify the criminal syndicate involved.

Hunt confirmed police would work with overseas law enforcement agencies.

“I acknowledge the staff for doing the right thing and it’s great to have this product seized before it reached New Zealand communities.

“For context, removing this amount of cocaine from the market may have prevented up to $13m worth of social harm to the country.”

The discovery was less than a month after Customs officials seized a duffel bag containing 21 bricks of cocaine, worth about $7.3 million, from a shipping container at the Port of Tauranga.

Inside the container, among legitimate goods, Customs officers found a shrink-wrapped bag with 21 bricks of the Class-A drug, branded with “VESPA” and a “mouse logo” and wrapped in “fragile” tape.

In July, 150kg of cocaine - worth about $58.2 million - was found at the Port of Tauranga in a shipping container from Jamaica.

The bricks were marked with an “X”, the words “good luck” and a coat of arms bearing the Latin phrase Custodi Civatatem Domine — meaning “Guard the city, O Lord”.