Burglars swapping school computers for drugs

Cannabis plants. File photo / Northern Advocate

Burglars are targeting schools in a small Wairarapa town to steal computers to exchange for drugs, say police.

Sergeant Steve Baddock said at least three schools in Pahiatua had been broken into in the past couple of weeks.

The burglars took "easy to cash up" electronic equipment and computers, which they were exchanging for cannabis with Palmerston North gangs.

"They put them through some gang and get drugs for it and away they go," he told the Wairarapa Times Age

He suspected the thieves to be in their late teens or early 20s, and were likely to be ex-Pahiatua residents now living in Palmerston North.

"They've tied up with Palmy gangs and they go away plundering, Mr Baddock said.

He appealed to anyone seeing suspicious people hanging around schools late at night to call police.

- NZPA