Police are hunting for a fifth Brazilian man in connection with the seizure of up to $1 million of cocaine.

A shipment of cocaine worth up to $1 million was found hidden inside two suitcases brought into the country by a passenger on a flight from South America.

Customs uncovered the 2.5 kilogram stash of drugs during "normal border operations" at Auckland International Airport on Friday, police said. Four Brazilian men were arrested as part of an operation dubbed Grenoble.

Facebook Josue Da Conceicao was living in Linwood.

Now a fifth is being sought.

Rodrigo Gerlach Rila, 43, had been living at a home on the North Shore in Auckland. Police believe he is travelling in a 1997 Toyota Lucida Estima light van coloured white registration BYE781. Any information to Detective Hamish Wyllie on (021) 191-0615.

COCAINE SUPPLY ROUTE TO CHRISTCHURCH

Facebook Marcos Andre Barbosa was living in Linwood.

Police believe they have uncovered a cocaine supply route between Auckland and Christchurch and arrested four men.

Josue Da Conceicao, 36, Marcos Andre Barbosa, 35, and Joao Batista Da Silveira, 39, yesterday appeared in the Christchurch and Manukau district courts charged with the importation and possession of cocaine.

Thiago August De Oliveira, 31, is charged only with possession of cocaine. All the men were remanded in custody without plea.

Facebook Thiago August De Oliveira was living in Riccarton.

The Press understands police will allege Silveira is the man who brought the cocaine into New Zealand and Oliveira, who was living in Riccarton, had travelled to Auckland to bring the drugs south. He was arrested in Auckland on Sunday.

Conceicao and Barbosa were living with a New Zealand man and his partner at a home in Linwood, Christchurch. Members of the armed offenders squad raided the property about 5.30pm on Monday.

The Kiwi couple were shocked to learn of their housemates' alleged offending.

"I opened the door and there were like six or seven cops there with machineguns pointed at me. [They said] ‘don't move'," the man, who The Press has agreed not to name, said.

Conceicao was dragged out of a room and arrested. Earlier, armed police had stopped a car in Gloucester St and arrested Barbosa, who was allegedly in possession of the cocaine.

Police seized items including a laptop, the man said.

"It sounded big time to the point where they were like, this doesn't happen [very often] in New Zealand, this is pretty rare, and for the South Island this is like a first-case scenario."

Police told him: "‘Tell us everything you know because you don't want to be involved in this'," he said. "I was straight up with them that we had nothing to do with it."

The man said he was shocked to hear Barbosa was allegedly connected to the importation.

"Marcos is the most genuine guy you've ever met. He's really down to earth, super friendly."

Barbosa, a fitter-welder, had lived at the home a couple of years.

Conceicao had been staying there only a few weeks after travelling from Auckland.

'FEW WEETBIX SHORT OF A PACK'

A man who lived with Oliveira in Brockworth Pl, Riccarton, said his flatmate left home on Friday saying he was ''going to a party''. They only discovered he had been arrested on Monday evening.

''He's just a naive guy who's a few Weetbix short of a pack, easily lead by other people.''

Detective Senior Sergeant Lloyd Schmid, from the Organised and Financial Crime Agency of New Zealand, said the cocaine seized had a street value of up to $1 million .

In Christchurch District Court yesterday, Judge Jane Farish said Oliveira had already ''made admissions'' in relation to ''very serious offending''.

She denied him bail because: ''He's looking at a lengthy term of imprisonment so there's a real incentive for him to leave [New Zealand].''

Last month, three kilograms of cocaine were found in an empty shipping container by staff at the Lyttelton Port Company city depot in Woolston.

The shipment, which had an estimated street value of more than $1 million, was not bound for New Zealand, police said.

The container was routed from South America to Europe. Police and Customs exhausted all inquiries trying to work out who was responsible for the shipment.

At the time, Detective Senior Sergeant Tony Hill said seizures of the drug were uncommon in Canterbury. The use and sale of cocaine had not come to the attention of the district's police in the past year, he said.

Figures provided by police show authorities have seized 33kg of cocaine in the last six years.

Six people were arrested after customs found 3kg of 80 per cent pure cocaine inside the lining of a man's suitcase at Auckland Airport in December 2011. The shipment, with an estimated street value of $1.2m, came from Mexico via Los Angeles. Peru, Colombia and Bolivia are the world's leading producers of coca, the plant used to make cocaine.