Police seize 4,000 cannabis plants in Dargaville glasshouses, arrest four
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.
🇳🇿 Property near Dargaville, Northland · New Zealand
More than 20 police staff searched a rural property near Dargaville and found five glasshouses filled with cannabis plants, one of them more than 60 metres wide.[1][2]Officers seized more than 4,000 plants ranging from seedlings to mature plants about 2.5 metres high.[1]
A commercial supply case
Police arrested four men at the property, aged between 20 and 45, and charged them with cultivating cannabis, saying further charges and seizures could follow as the operation continued.[1]Detective Senior Sergeant Geoff McCarthy called the glasshouse operation sophisticated and well established, and said there could be little doubt the cannabis was destined for supply throughout New Zealand.[1]
The raid drew criticism for its timing months before the cannabis legalisation referendum, but police said the seizure was part of a wider operation also targeting methamphetamine dealers, psychoactive substances and illegal firearms.[2]
Photos and video
More than 4,000 cannabis plants seized in the Northland glasshouse raid. Photo: New Zealand PolicePhoto 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.
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.
Tasman police raided a sophisticated cannabis operation on the West Coast, finding a large underground bunker grow at Kaniere and arresting two men, while restraining about $5 million in assets.
Wellington police broke up a commercial cannabis growing and dealing network across the lower North Island, arresting eleven people aged 20 to 68. Officers executed fourteen warrants, found growing at five addresses, and said the network had sold hundreds of thousands of dollars of cannabis over several years.
