The Fire Service's hazard unit helps police with a bust on a suspected P lab in Northolt Rd in Hamilton. Photo / Sarah Ivey
The Fire Service's hazard unit helps police with a bust on a suspected P lab in Northolt Rd in Hamilton. Photo / Sarah Ivey
KEY POINTS:
Nine people have been arrested in two days in two major police operations which have uncovered a pair of suspected P labs in the Waikato area.
In the second raid, police allegedly found people making the drug at a Northolt Rd home in Chartwell, Hamilton about 1.30pm yesterday.
Shocked residents who flocked to the scene after seeing firefighters arrive were appalled to discover the suspected P lab in their neighbourhood.
"I can't believe it," one woman was overheard saying. "This whole street is filled up with families with kids and they all play around this street."
Detective Sergeant Greg Holmes of the clandestine laboratory investigations team told the Herald officers raided the home and arrested three men, without the use of police armed offenders squads who often help with P busts because of the threat of firearms.
Although no firearms were found, officers seized a crossbow, he said.
The trio would appear in the Hamilton District Court today charged with manufacturing methamphetamine. It was possible further charges would be laid.
Three arrested men and eight police officers underwent decontamination showers to rid them of chemical residue after the raid.
It was not thought the P lab was gang-related. The home remained cordoned off this morning.
Six people were arrested when a suspected P lab was raided in Orini, north of Hamilton on Tuesday, Mr Holmes said.
Four people were charged with manufacturing P and two others faced drugs-related charges which they will face in the Pukekohe District Court.
