{"id":579554,"date":"2026-08-25T06:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T06:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/579554\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T06:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T06:00:14","slug":"one-of-the-largest-vietnamese-cannabis-syndicate-shut-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/579554\/","title":{"rendered":"‘One of the largest’: Vietnamese cannabis syndicate shut down"},"content":{"rendered":"

An alleged Vietnamese cannabis syndicate in Auckland has been shut down, with 12 people being arrested. <\/p>\n

Police described the organisation as “one of the largest syndicates” operating and supplying cannabis grow houses in Auckland.<\/p>\n

Officers executed 19 raids in Flat Bush, Howick, Sylvia Park, Wiri, and Massey as part of the operation late last week. Police were supported by Immigration NZ and Customs.<\/p>\n

The alleged kingpin, a 36-year-old Flat Bush man, was among those arrested. <\/p>\n

\"Alongside<\/p>\n

Alongside immigration, police carried out 19 raids across the city. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

During the raids, officers seized around $1.25 million worth of cannabis cultivation equipment and $80,000 in cash.<\/p>\n

A pistol and ammunition were found at one Massey property, with around 35kg of cannabis and “several large bags” of MDMA pills also seized. <\/p>\n

The alleged kingpin faced six charges, including participating in an organised criminal group, money laundering, supplying equipment used in cannabis cultivation and possession of cannabis for supply.<\/p>\n

He appeared in the Manukau District Court on August 20 and was due to reappear in November. <\/p>\n

Two women and nine men also arrested faced charges relating to participating in an organised criminal group, money laundering and drug offences.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

Police seized a number of items in the raids. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

Detective Senior Sergeant John Brunton said the 10-month investigation went beyond cannabis grow operations found in houses. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have deliberately taken the time to investigate the syndicate\u2019s activities and build a picture of its network, which we will allege is one of the largest of its kind.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice have been working closely with a range of agencies as part of the investigation, learning more about the syndicate\u2019s criminal activities. <\/p>\n

“This includes allegations of supplying cannabis cultivation equipment, cannabis cultivation and money laundering.”<\/p>\n

\"Twelve<\/p>\n

Twelve people, including the alleged kingpin, were arrested. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

Across the whole investigation, more than five tonnes of cannabis material was seized across 50 rental properties. <\/p>\n

Eleven Vietnamese nationals, who police described as “crop sitters”, have been deported. <\/p>\n

\u201cFive further crop-sitters remain in New Zealand pending prosecution. Police continue to work with Immigration New Zealand through this process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brunton called last week’s busts a “fantastic result” that sent a message to operating syndicates. <\/p>\n

“We are watching,” he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cPolice are closely working across other law enforcement and government agencies to target syndicates involving themselves in this sort of criminal offending.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An alleged Vietnamese cannabis syndicate in Auckland has been shut down, with 12 people being arrested. Police described…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579555,"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-579554","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\/579554","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=579554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}