Booze blitz nets drivers and fighters

Police continued their fight against alcohol-fuelled crime in Auckland last night. File photo / Dean Purcell

Police last night continued a weekend-long transtasman blitz on booze-fuelled crime.

Operation United was launched to curb a "dangerous binge-drinking culture" that costs New Zealand $1.1 billion and Australia $2.14 billion a year.

The number of arrests will not be known until tomorrow, but police were kept busy on Friday night tackling drink drivers and targeting drunken violence.

A checkpoint in Panmure, Auckland netted a man with five previous drink-driving convictions and a driver with his 7-year-old son in the car.

Officers caught three people in their first 30 minutes on Tamaki Drive, including a woman driving a silver Mercedes who tried to fox police by doing a u-turn and switching seats with her driver.

Police in central Auckland broke up a fight involving about 30 drunk people on Fort St and arrested another after a booze-fuelled brawl off Queen St.

Auckland road policing manager Inspector Gavin MacDonald said the operation was a response to a drinking problem that was getting "worse and worse".

Other police districts joined the crackdown, targeting licensed premises, central business districts and drink drivers.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY