The operation resulted in the seizure of five firearms, $915,335 in cash, 791 grams of methamphetamine, 18g of cocaine and 54g of cannabis. <\/p>\n
Police accuse the alleged crime ring of trying to import 18kg of meth, 408g of cannabis resin and 1.6kg of cannabis plants. <\/p>\n
Acting Detective Inspector Jason Hunt, of the National Organised Crime Group, said the first phase of the operation began in June. <\/p>\n
Police found four Glocks and a submachine gun when they executed a search warrant at an Airbnb in M\u0101ngere Bridge. <\/p>\n
The guns were stashed in a suitcase in an upstairs bedroom, Hunt said. <\/p>\n
The operation resulted in police seizing $915,335 in cash. Photo \/ New Zealand Police
The guns were stashed inside a suitcase in an upstairs bedroom of an Airbnb. Photo \/ New Zealand Police<\/p>\n
The three Americans were arrested at an address in Onehunga later that day. They were charged with importing methamphetamine and participating in an organised crime group. <\/p>\n
Then, in August, search warrants were executed at four properties in Pakuranga, \u014ctara, Blockhouse Bay and Papatoetoe. After raiding the properties, police laid drug importing and possession charges against four people. <\/p>\n
They then found more than $800,000 in cash in an apartment in Takapuna at the beginning of September. A man was arrested on suspicion of money laundering. <\/p>\n
The same day, police found 41g of meth and $77,000 in cash at an address in Mt Wellington. <\/p>\n
And yesterday, police and Customs investigators raided 10 properties in Auckland and Waikato. <\/p>\n
Seven more people were arrested. <\/p>\n
Hunt said: \u201cWe are continuing to focus our efforts on these syndicates establishing themselves for financial greed while preying on vulnerable communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolice will continue to act, alongside Customs and our other law enforcement partners, to shut down this organised criminal offending taking place across different parts of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Customs found suspects allegedly smuggling cannabis plants and resin into the country and tracked their activities. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis joint investigation with our police partners has disrupted this criminal group and kept 900,000 doses of methamphetamine off our streets,\u201d acting Customs investigations manager Simon Peterson said.<\/p>\n
Ten men, aged from 23 to 39, and one woman, 33, face combined charges for alleged drug and border offences. <\/p>\n
Charges against them include unlawful possession of firearms, importation of methamphetamine, possession for supply of methamphetamine, importation of cannabis resin (a class B controlled drug) and importation of cannabis plant (a class C controlled drug).<\/p>\n
Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers business, breaking news and local stories from T\u0101maki Makaurau. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.<\/p>\n
Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The operation resulted in the seizure of five firearms, $915,335 in cash, 791 grams of methamphetamine, 18g of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2840,6527,1554,29953,51,29950,17287,6932,29951,7815,29955,305,1019,29949,1132,11692,111,43,139,69,17286,384,675,29952,29954,29956,1524],"class_list":["post-31130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-across","tag-airbnb","tag-alleged","tag-arresting","tag-auckland","tag-bust","tag-busted","tag-cash","tag-drugsmuggling","tag-guns","tag-haul","tag-have","tag-international","tag-mexted","tag-million","tag-nearly","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-operation","tag-people","tag-police","tag-ring","tag-seizing","tag-stashed","tag-waikato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}