![[quote]](http://static.biggie.co.nz/img/dis/message_quote.png "Quote message")
Not looking good and Wellington and will Auckland bit hit the same to soon ???
Police pounce in huge drug bust
12 December 2001
Police pounced on dozens of suspects today in the Wellington region's largest drug operation in 10 years.
About 200 officers, including the armed offenders squad, gathered at a secret Lower Hutt location before raiding 78 properties throughout the region.
More than 50 arrests are likely today, while stolen property has been recovered and about $80,000 in drugs seized.
The bust followed years of planning and several months intensive work by two undercover operatives infiltrating Wellington's criminal underworld.
Police started gathering in Lower Hutt early this morning and began flowing out of the secret location in convoys from 5.30am.
Officers raided residential properties in Waikanae, Raumati, Porirua, Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt and Wellington. Armed offenders squad members stormed the Mongrel Mob gang pad in Upper Hutt and cleared the building for specialist search groups.
The units held a list of 51 suspects identified by the undercover operatives.
The raids followed two separate operations. Operation Recon probed the manufacture and supply of hard drugs, predominantly methamphetamine (Speed) but also LSD, cocaine, Ecstasy, morphine sulphate and opium.
Operation Visor focused on organised crime within ethnic gangs.
Evidence was gathered against 80 people in total - including one from Nelson, three from Palmerston North and one from Dunedin - and officers planned to make immediate arrests if the 51 targeted today were identified.
Other criminals and their activities were also expected to be uncovered today.
The undercover operatives bought drugs with a street value of $80,000 and that represented only a small proportion of what was available. The haul included 5.2kg of cannabis plant, 582 cannabis oil caps, 202g of methamphetamine, 408 LSD trips, eight opium caps, 4g of cocaine, 80 Ecstasy tablets and 80 morphine sulphate tablets.
Stolen property, including five vehicles and 38 laptop computers, valued at more than $200,000, was recovered in the operation, along with $2000 in cash. Because of the length of the operation, much of the stolen property was filtered back to its owners while the operatives continued their work.
Detective Inspector Norm Cook said there had been no bigger operation in the region since the Operation Kettle drug bust in 1992.
He said the extent of today's raids reflected the scourge of methamphetamine freely available in Wellington.
"The operations have confirmed the burgeoning methamphetamine problem in the Wellington district. Methamphetamine use has become a plague across all sections of society," Mr Cook said.
"Some people perceive it as a safe drug. It's not safe. It's insidious, unpredictable, dangerous and deadly. We've been told that it's so dangerous that some gangs who are distributing the deadly drug have banned their own members from using it.
"Today's termination will have a psychological impact on the criminal fraternity.
"It shows we mean business and that we're not prepared to ignore drug offending, particularly amphetamine," he said.
Customs officers, with specialist drug dogs, also assisted in today's raids.
