New Zealand and Samoa have signed bespoke arrangements between the nations’ respective police and customs departments to bolster action against what Prime Minister Christopher Luxon calls the Pacific “superhighway for drugs”.

Drug trafficking in and through the Pacific is a major issue. Traffickers use the Pacific as a highway and its nations as transit points to get drugs into Pacific communities and NZ.

Luxon attended a Cabinet meeting with his Samoan counterpart, La’aulialemalietoa Polataivao Leuatea Fosi Schmidt, this afternoon in Apia, where a Police Memorandum of Arrangement and a Customs Co-operation Arrangement was signed.

Luxon told the Herald that once drug traffickers got their product into the Pacific, it was essentially in NZ and Australia as well due to NZ’s lack of sea borders.

“The question is how do we disrupt the drugs at sea? How do we catch them at our respective borders?”

The Prime Ministers of Samoa and New Zealand holding a press conference after a Cabinet meeting in Apia. Photo / Julia Gabel

New Zealand’s Police Commissioner Richard Chambers, Police Minister Mark Mitchell and Minister for Pacific People’s Shane Reti also attended the meeting.

Speaking at a joint press conference after the Cabinet meeting, Luxon said criminals who were moving drugs through the Pacific and into New Zealand were “very innovative” and “will not give up”.

“Whether it’s in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, we are now a superhighway for drugs, particularly out of South America,” he said.

“We’ve seen submarines and all sorts of things happening with drugs coming into this part of the world. Those criminal gangs will not give up. They are very innovative, they keep pushing their product on to our people and we don’t like it.”

The newly-signed police agreement follows a similar deal made between the NZ and Samoan forces in 2010. The fresh deal allows for five New Zealand police officers to “embed” into the Samoan police force and for the two forces to share information easily.

Leaders from Samoa and New Zealand during a Cabinet meeting addressing a joint response to drug crime in the Pacific. Photo / Sam Sachdeva

The customs deal also allows NZ and Samoan entities to share information easily to disrupt drug traffickers.

Organised crime in the Pacific was discussed in a Cabinet report prepared for Customs Minister Casey Costello. In that report, released in June 2025, Americas and Asian drug cartels were increasing their foothold in the Pacific.

The experts who briefed the minister described a “Pacific tsunami” of crime into small Pacific populations that would create problems.

Low-wage economies of the Pacific Islands also made the countries more vulnerable.

“While the direct consequences for Pacific nations of organised crime is already appearing – the influx of drugs, for example – 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 ... established on New Zealand’s doorstep,” the advisory group told Costello.

“New Zealand, therefore, not only has a moral obligation to assist its Pacific neighbours, but a very practical reason to do so.”

Luxon will also visit Tonga during the second leg of the three-day Pacific trip. The Herald covered that report, released in June, in detail, and the impact of drugs in the Pacific, particularly methamphetamine in Tonga, in recent reporting.

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.