Search and Surveillance Act 2012

Amendments, repeals, and miscellaneous provisions - Amendments to search and seizure powers in other enactments (and to related provisions) used for law enforcement purposes or for law enforcement and regulatory purposes - Amendments to Customs and Excise Act 1996

228: New section 175D inserted

You could also call this:

"Customs officers can stop and search you if they think you've broken the law"

Illustration for Search and Surveillance Act 2012

You can be stopped and searched by a Customs officer. They can take goods or documents if they think you have broken the law. The officer must have a good reason to think you have done something wrong. You might have broken the law under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 or the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993. The Customs officer can give the goods or documents to a constable or an Inspector of Publications. They can also keep the goods or documents to investigate further. If the goods or documents are given to someone else, that person is then responsible for them. Some parts of the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 apply to the powers of the Customs officer. But some parts of that Act do not apply to goods that have been forfeited, which means they have been taken away because they were used to break the law, as explained in the Search and Surveillance Act 2012. The Customs officer has to follow certain rules when taking and keeping goods or documents. They can also decide to treat the goods or documents as forfeited, which means they are taken away for good.

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This page was last updated on 26 November 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM2136954.

Topics:

Crime and justice > Police and safetyCrime and justice > Criminal law

227: Seizure and detention of goods suspected to be certain risk goods or evidence of commission of certain offences, or

"Taking items that might be a risk or proof of a crime, to keep them safe while investigating."

229: Amendments to Part 17 of Customs and Excise Act 1996, or

"Changes to the Customs and Excise Act 1996"

Part 5Amendments, repeals, and miscellaneous provisions
Amendments to search and seizure powers in other enactments (and to related provisions) used for law enforcement purposes or for law enforcement and regulatory purposes: Amendments to Customs and Excise Act 1996

228New section 175D inserted

The following section is inserted after section 175C:
175DSeizure and detention of certain drugs and objectionable publications
1. A Customs officer may seize and detain goods or documents that are presented or located in the course of exercising any power of inspection, search, or examination under this Act, if he or she has cause to suspect on reasonable grounds that the goods or documents are evidence of the commission of 1 or more offences under 1 or more of the following enactments:
2. section 6, 7, 12A, 13, or 22 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975:
3. section 123, 124, 131, or 131A of the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993.
4. A Customs officer who detains goods or documents under subsection (1) may, if the appropriate person specified in subsection (3) agrees, do any of the following:
5. deliver the goods or documents into the custody of that person:
6. retain the goods or documents pending further investigation:
7. treat the goods or documents as forfeited within the meaning of this Act.
8. The appropriate person referred to in subsection (2) is,—
9. if the Customs officer believes that subsection (1)(a) applies, a constable; or
10. if the Customs officer believes that subsection (1)(b) applies, an Inspector of Publications within the meaning of the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993.
11. Once goods or documents have been delivered to a person under subsection (2)(a), responsibility for those goods or documents passes to that person.
12. The provisions of subparts 1, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10 of Part 4 of the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 apply in respect of the powers conferred by this section.
13. Despite subsection (5), sections 125(4), 131(5)(f), and 133, and subpart 6 of Part 4 of the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 do not apply to any forfeited goods (within the meaning of this Act).