Officers from the Organised Financial Crime Agency of New Zealand and Wellington District police teams executed ten search warrants on 31 July 2013 after a three-month investigation, Operation Hive, into a drug-dealing group based in Ascot Park, Porirua.[1] At seven properties they found separate cannabis growing operations, seizing more than 100 mature plants and a substantial quantity of dried cannabis being prepared for sale.[1]
Detectives also recovered methamphetamine, evidence of steroid importing and selling, a shotgun and three air rifles.[1] Six properties worth $2.5 million were restrained under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009, including a Titahi Bay boat house police believed coordinated the operation; cannabis was also found growing in houses the group had rented for the purpose.[1]
Sentences
Police later said Hive had targeted the organised distribution of methamphetamine and the commercial cultivation and sale of cannabis across Porirua, Wellington and the Hutt Valley.[2] Mason Tobin, 28, of Churton Park pleaded guilty to nine cannabis charges and was jailed for three and a half years in the Wellington District Court on 29 January 2016.[2]
His father Joseph Mason Tobin, described by the judge as the key player in the family growing operation, was jailed for five and a half years on 16 March 2016 after pleading guilty to cultivating, selling and offering cannabis for sale, alongside methamphetamine and firearm charges.[3]
