Police recover 10,224 cannabis plants in 2013 Central District operation
New Zealand police recovered 10,224 cannabis plants from 108 plots across the Central District in the 2013 Cannabis and Crime operation, using Air Force helicopters and 80 search warrants. Police identified 122 offenders and laid 178 charges.
🇳🇿 Central District, North Island, including Taranaki, Ruapehu, Whanganui and Manawatu · New Zealand
New Zealand police recovered 10,224 cannabis plants across the Central District
in their annual Cannabis and Crime operation, up from 10,134 the year before.[1]Of the total, 5,918 plants came from the aerial operation and 4,306 from
search warrants.[1]The operation combined intelligence-gathering with an
aerial phase using Air Force Iroquois helicopters to winch officers into plots,
plus a ground phase of 80 search warrants against dealers and cultivators.[1]
Cannabis grows were found at 108 plots, and police said 122 offenders had been
identified, resulting in 178 charges.[1]Officers also found two clan labs
and recovered firearms, vehicles, cannabis seeds, ecstasy tablets and
methamphetamine.[1]Taranaki yielded 1,052 plants from the air, Ruapehu
2,344, Whanganui 1,737 and Manawatu 785.[1]Operation coordinator Detective
Senior Sergeant Keith Borrell credited public tip-offs, including Crimestoppers
calls, for the result.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
This account rests on a single police statement; no second source was found.
Separate Levin and Waverley seizures described in the same release as not part of this operation (67 plants and one arrest; 770 drying plants and four arrests) are different events left out here.
No counts were published for the methamphetamine, ecstasy tablets, firearms, vehicles and cannabis seeds also recovered.
The release page carries two aerial photographs of cannabis plots, but nothing ties them to this year's operation, so they are not listed as media.
Police destroyed around 360 cannabis plants found under 15 tents in a Queen Street warehouse in Ōtāhuhu, Auckland. The search warrant was executed on Thursday, 14 May 2026, after an electrician reported unusual wiring, ventilation pipes and a cannabis smell.
Police announced on 25 September 2025 that a month-long operation in Auckland had shut 120 cannabis grow houses, destroyed more than 11,000 plants and seized more than 10 tonnes of cannabis. Thirty people were arrested, most Vietnamese nationals facing deportation, and police put the black-market value at more than NZ$50 million.
New Zealand police seized more than 34,000 cannabis plants and 79 kg of dried cannabis, together valued at about $95 million, in the summer national aerial eradication operation, with results announced 6 May 2022. Officers ran 123 searches, seizing 80 firearms and dismantling 24 indoor commercial grows.
Police destroyed 16,307 cannabis plants in Northland during Operation Jess, run from mid-January to mid-March 2018, the highest district tally in that year's national eradication programme. Officers also seized dried cannabis, firearms, cash and stolen property.
