Four drug labs busted

A police asset recovery unit will carry out a financial investigation. Photo/Supplied

Methamphetamine worth "thousands and thousands" of dollars has been seized by armed police after inter-regional raids that busted three clandestine labs in the Bay of Plenty.

A fourth P lab was raided in Paeroa when police carried out the operation yesterday.

The raids involved 80 police staff, including assistance from Bay of Plenty and Waikato Armed Offender squads and a specialist search dog from Wellington.

Detective Senior Sergeant Lindsay Pilbrow said the busts would have a big impact.

"The group we are targeting here are a significant group. There will be flow-on effects. No doubt about it," he said.

The two-and-half month operation was led by Bay police, resulting in 14 search warrants being executed in Tauranga, Tokoroa and Taupo yesterday.

In recent weeks, six arrests were made in Palmerston North, Paeroa, Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua and Whakatane.

Yesterday's operation resulted in six further arrests.

Police seized 750g of methamphetamine plus cannabis, thousands of dollars in cash, and suspected stolen property in the raids. This was in addition to a stolen vehicle and more than $120,000 in cash during previous weeks.

"It's a good win for us. It's a good win for the community," Mr Pilbrow said.

The labs were commercial operations and operated from rural and residential properties.

Mr Pilbrow said the raids were "certainly significant".

"These are seriously large ... meth labs, they are not just one-offs. They are continuously producing," he said.

"It would be thousands and thousands of dollars worth [on the street]."

A police asset recovery unit will carry out a financial investigation to establish whether the people involved benefited from criminal activity.

Mr Pilbrow said of the drug trade: "All they are interested in is the money. They don't care about you. They don't care about your kids. They don't care about the misery they cause. That's what people need to realise." Mr Pilbrow said the amount of methamphetamine found would cause millions of dollars worth of social harm.

"We are pretty passionate about this stuff. We see what it's about.

"It's about criminals making money out of stuff. We see the other side of it. We see the harm. People end up in hospital or in our cells with massive drug problems. They lose everything."

-If anyone has information about drugs cultivation, manufacture or supply, they can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.