KEY POINTS:
Residents of the small Waikato town of Kihikihi were shocked awake by loudspeakers and what they thought were gunshots early yesterday.
The town, 3km south of Te Awamutu, was the scene of one of a series of dawn raids by armed police in Auckland and the Waikato.
Methamphetamine
and cannabis worth $500,000, and illegal firearms and explosives were recovered in the raids on gang premises, and by evening, 18 people had been arrested.
In Kihikihi, the armed offenders squad swooped on a motorcycle shop in the main street about 6am after first cordoning off the road to traffic.
Several locals said they heard gunshots, but police said the sounds were distraction devices used to execute their search warrant on the Affordable Custom Cycles shop.
Witnesses said a man was taken away in handcuffs, and police later removed items from the shop and a flat underneath.
Locals said the building was a known Tribesmen gang hangout.
Next to it is a fence with barbed wire across the top, behind which is the entrance to the flat. There are also two other houses behind the fence and the residents of one were inadvertently caught up in the raid.
"It was scary, really scary," a woman from the house said. "They just dragged me around the side of the building. I was up against the wall and I wasn't allowed to move."
The woman's partner had left the house to go to work a few minutes earlier and was grabbed by armed police, handcuffed, and forced to the ground.
The woman had been in the shower and went outside when she heard what she thought were gunshots and she too was snatched. Her 16-year-old son was in bed asleep but she was not allowed back inside to warn him of the raid and became fearful he might be shot.
A nearby store owner heard yelling about 6am followed by two shots.
"I heard the rifle shots and I looked out the door and there was an armed offenders guy standing out there pointing his gun at the shop."
She said customers later told her about another similar raid in nearby Pirongia.
By mid-morning, there were still at least 10 police vehicles present.
Officers removed a cordon from the front of the motorcycle shop at 11.15am. At noon, two Customs officers arrived, one with a dog.