Mexican ‘tourist’ Isreal Brambila busted with $360,000 in cash and almost 14kg of methamphetamine

Israel Brambila, a Mexican drug dealer, was arrested in Auckland with $360,000 and almost 14kg of methamphetamine. Brambila pleaded guilty to possession of meth for supply and was sentenced to six years in prison. The High Court ordered the forfeiture of the money to the Crown under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act.

A Mexican drug dealer who entered New Zealand on a tourist visa got less than two months to see the sights before he found himself looking at the walls of a prison cell. Israel Brambila, a 36-year-old man posing as a tourist, had the bad luck to be spotted with a “person of interest” by an existing police surveillance operation in the weeks after he landed in New Zealand in December 2022. The existing investigation was into the importation and sale of Class A drugs .



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