3,385 plants and 48 kg seized in Auckland organised-crime raids
Police executed over 30 search warrants across Auckland in the week before Labour Weekend 2024, seizing 3,385 cannabis plants and 48 kilograms of dried cannabis worth an estimated $18 million and arresting 11 people.
Police across the Counties Manukau, Auckland City and Waitemata districts executed over 30 search warrants in the week before Labour Weekend, targeting an organised crime group using rented homes as indoor growing operations.[1][2]
They seized and destroyed 3,385 cannabis plants at various growth stages and 48 kilograms of dried cannabis, with an estimated total value of $18 million based on estimated plant yield.[1][2]
Eleven people were arrested.[1][2]Police said most of those involved were in New Zealand illegally, and 11 Vietnamese nationals were deported to Vietnam.[1][2]Officers warned landlords about tampered electricity meters and deliveries of growing nutrients at rental properties.[2]
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Cannabis seized in the Auckland raidsPhoto details
Ten people were arrested and 6,886 cannabis plants seized as New Zealand police, business ministry and immigration officers raided a Vietnamese syndicate's indoor grows across Auckland on 1 December 2023, with 12 people facing deportation.
New Zealand police ended Operation Peruvian with raids in Northland on 1 December 2022, seizing and destroying 6,500 cannabis plants worth more than NZ$10 million. Six people were arrested, part of 34 arrests across Peruvian and the related Operation Bush.
About 160 police ended a six-month investigation into an organised cannabis syndicate with 23 search warrants across Taupō, Hamilton and Rotorua, arresting 20 people and seizing about 3,450 plants worth some $3.2 million.
Northland police raided a sophisticated glasshouse cannabis operation near Dargaville, seizing more than 4,000 plants, and charged four men with cultivation in what police called one of the region's most significant seizures in years.
