One of the guest authors at Naked Capitalism, Richard Smith writes:

I wrote about the Mexican drug lords’ enormous New Zealand connection here. It’s a long post about a meaty $400Bn, yes that’s Billion, of moneylaundering, via front companies set up from New Zealand.

Now there is a new reputational disaster. According to New Zealand’s internet newspaper, Stuff, the Russian mafia also had its way with New Zealand’s magnificently lax, yet painfully transparent, company incorporation regime:

Upon reading this, everything makes a little more sense. Back in early 2009, I took a short 12 day trip to the north island of New Zealand to visit some friends and wander around the countryside in an older secondhand vehicle. After a 13+ hour plane ride that landed me more than a dozen time zones ahead, I was handed a customs information card, which I filled out the best I could given how tired I was. Longer story short, I forgot to fill in some parts and was pulled aside to have my things searched and be questioned. Naturally, they came up empty handed and I got into the country and went on my adventure. My friends in the country wrote it off as a mix of the normal customs process and the local youth methamphetamine epidemic.

However, after reading New Zealand's problems with both the Mexican cartel and the Russian mafia, it makes a little bit more sense. I can see how a young, 20-something from America with shaggy hair, operating on caffeine and adrenaline and a poorly filled out customs card could lead to some slight suspicion if you were currently facing a home-made meth problem internally AND fighting both the cartel and mafia.