Pounamu theft: Mother and son fined $5000

A mother and son caught trying to take a large amount of pounamu to China have been fined a combined $5000.

In the first successful prosecution of its kind by New Zealand Customs, Boyuan Zhang and his mother Xin Li were found carrying almost 18kg of it in their luggage at Auckland Airport in 2024.

The pair were found guilty of attempting to illegally export the stone, also known as jade, and were sentenced at the Manukau District Court this morning. Zhang was fined $3000 and Li $2000.

Pounamu is the property of Ngāi Tahu, the principal Māori iwi in the South Island, by virtue of the Pounamu (Ngāi Tahu) Vesting Act 1997.

It holds legal ownership of all naturally occurring stone within its tribal boundaries and has stepped up efforts to disrupt the black market trade, alongside police.

It is illegal to take more than 5kg of the raw stone out of New Zealand without consent.

Descendants of Ngai Tahu said the verdict at the trial in March served as a warning that anyone who attempted to export pounamu without permission could and would be prosecuted.

Westland Hapū Te Runanga O Makaaawhio chair Paul Madgwick told RNZ's Morning Report programme today that "blocks the size of half a desk" were being taken out of the ground and rivers.

"They'll fly in to these remote areas where no one lives. Like areas south of Haast, where there's only a population of two. So the helicopters can fly in and out at will."

Recently, two separate police operations had recovered 1.8 tonne and 850kg of stolen pounamu.

In April, three people were arrested in Central Otago and the West Coast regarding the first amount, and in the second, stolen pounamu was seized in Dunedin and a 29-year-old man arrested in December 2025.

Madgwick said there was no question that people taking the pounamu knew it was illegal, as there had been no permits for pounamu extraction since 1997.

It was a challenge dealing with this kind of theft in remote areas, Madgwick said, but the iwi had support of police.

"We're not expecting to solve this quickly. But we're hoping by catching at least some of the thieves we can get some strong messaging out there that will deter people from helping themselves to what is a privately owned resource."

As it stands, people are legally allowed to take 5kg of unworked pounamu out of the country, which Madgwick disagreed with.

"There's really no reason to be taking raw pounamu out of the country unless it's Ngāi Tahu."

There were varying degrees of culpability in the illegal trade, Madgwick said, from the "greedy ones" who took the pounamu, to the "shady dealers" selling from the back of a ute and carvers who took the stolen stones without asking questions.

- additional reporting by Allied Media 

This story was first published on rnz.co.nz