Owner to appear in court after guns seized from Otaki Hunting & Fishing

The Otaki Hunting & Fishing store.

Police have seized guns from a Hunting & Fishing store in Otaki and the owner is appearing in court on drug-related charges.

Charlie Meyer confirmed last night the guns were taken from his store, and that his firearms licence had been revoked.

Meyer, 44, said there had been a burglary recently and "because of that, the fallout was that my firearms license has been revoked. Now I'm going through a process till one of my staff hopefully gets a license."

But the Herald can today confirm Meyer will be appearing in the Levin District Court tomorrow morning on "drug-related charges", according to police.

People at nearby businesses said the store, located on the main road through Otaki, was locked and closed up after police visited yesterday and removed the shop's entire collection of firearms.

Hunting & Fishing New Zealand general manager Trent Smith confirmed the guns had been taken by police.

"At this stage all I can say is the store owner has been working with the arms officers and police over the last few weeks and today and yesterday police have removed the firearms from the store."

He was aware a burglary had happened "some weeks ago" but was not sure if the two incidents were connected.

Smith said they hoped the store would be operational as soon as possible, but he wasn't sure when that would be.

Police have not yet commented on the incident.