{"id":437661,"date":"2026-05-21T02:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T02:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/437661\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T02:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T02:44:11","slug":"union-says-auckland-prison-arrests-largest-operation-of-its-kind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/437661\/","title":{"rendered":"Union says Auckland prison arrests ‘largest operation’ of its kind"},"content":{"rendered":"

The arrest of 14 Auckland prison staff<\/a> is the largest operation of its kind in recent memory, the union representing corrections officers says.<\/p>\n

The Department of Corrections confirmed nine staff from the Mt Eden Corrections Facility had been taken into custody on Wednesday, while Serco said five reintegration officers were arrested at the Kohuora Auckland South Corrections Facility.<\/p>\n

Authorities have not detailed the exact charges, citing ongoing court proceedings, though the Corrections Minister has indicated the alleged offending is linked to gang activity.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Breakfast, Corrections Association of New Zealand president Floyd du Plessis said the situation, while serious, was not unexpected.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately this is the largest operation we’ve seen of this kind.”<\/p>\n

Allegations of bribery and contraband smuggling emerge as police probe gang-linked activity across Auckland jails. (Source: Breakfast)<\/p>\n

Du Plessis said the arrests came after long-standing warnings from the union about corruption risks inside prisons.<\/p>\n

“For quite some time\u2026 we’ve been asking for additional training, awareness, and ramping up protections around entry and exit out of the prison to help prevent these things from happening.”<\/p>\n

He said staff regularly faced attempts by prisoners and outside associates to influence or manipulate them.<\/p>\n

“On a regular basis, there are attempts by these groups to influence staff, manipulate staff, all those from a very minor level to a high level,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Some of these things take months or years, where they slowly just work away – find weaknesses. We’ve also had examples where we’ve had people turn up to staff members’ houses and threaten them, intimidate them into doing things.”<\/p>\n

Despite the scale of the arrests, du Plessis stressed the alleged offending involved a small proportion of the workforce.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s 14 staff out of thousands\u2026 for the most part, staff around the country do a phenomenally good job.”<\/p>\n

\"Mt<\/p>\n

Mt Eden Corrections Facility (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell told Breakfast corruption was not a new problem.<\/p>\n

“As the incoming minister, I could see clearly this wasn’t just an issue globally, it was an issue that we had to be very sensitive to back here at home, and that’s why I’ve been very clear with both corrections and police keep running these operations.”<\/p>\n

He said there were ongoing programmes to make sure integrity is maintained across government agencies.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got gangs and organised crime that dedicate most of their time in finding ways of being able to corrupt or infiltrate or defeat security, and we’ve just got to continue to be vigilant, we’ve got to continue to target these groups and take action, just like we have.”<\/p>\n

Deputy Commissioner for Men\u2019s Prisons Dave Pattinson confirmed both corrections officers and senior staff were among those arrested.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis matter is now subject to active investigation and court proceedings, which we don\u2019t want to compromise in any way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are actively working through the impact on these staff members\u2019 employment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corrections said the arrests were part of a wider police operation across Auckland, with investigations ongoing.<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including more warnings about corrections corruption, a shocking death on a New York street, and Italy\u2019s surprise scandal. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The arrest of 14 Auckland prison staff is the largest operation of its kind in recent memory, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[51,67,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-437661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-auckland","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437661","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=437661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}