Wellington - A Polish gardener was caught at a New Zealand airport trying to smuggle ivy from a Polish castle and other plants into the country in his underpants, authorities said on Monday.
Biosecurity staff said the man was found to be hiding a collection of plant material including cuttings, a bulb, a tuber and seeds in his underwear after strip-searching him at Auckland airport on Saturday.
The man, a New Zealand resident, was searched after a detector dog sniffed out the plants near his groin, a spokesman for the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), Craig Hughes, said.
He was wearing two pairs of underpants concealing cuttings of common ivy from a castle in Poland, as well as myrtle and ornamental sweet potato cuttings, a lily bulb and cucumber seeds, the MPI said.
“He wanted the plants for his garden, saying he could not find them in New Zealand,” Hughes said.
The man is expected to be prosecuted under the Biosecurity Act.
Such plant material “could endanger New Zealand’s primary industries and native plant life by introducing foreign pests and diseases,” Hughes said.
DPA