Image copyright AFP Image caption Some of the shipment was believed to be destined for Christchurch

New Zealand police say they have made their biggest ever seizure of cocaine, hidden inside a novel kind of drug mule.

They intercepted the $10m (£7.6m) worth of cocaine inside a huge diamante-encrusted statue of a horse's head.

The shipment of 35kg (77lb) bricks was air-freighted from Mexico to the city of Auckland in May.

An American and two Mexicans were arrested over the weekend following a six-week investigation.

The horse's head weighed 365kg and was 1m (3ft) tall, the New Zealand Herald reported.

"This is a significant win for New Zealand," said Det Supt Virginia Le Bas. "We should be proud to have detected it at the earliest of stages."