A Kawerau residential property and cash valued at nearly $420,000 has been forfeited to the Crown after a major police operation targeting meth supply in the township.
Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Nick O'Brien of the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Asset Recovery Unit said the forfeiture order was the culmination of Operation Notus, a six-month covert investigation by the National Organised Criminal Group and Bay of Plenty police staff into meth supply in Kawerau and other towns in the eastern Bay of Plenty.
Operation Notus began in October 2017 and led to the arrests of more than 50 people, including senior members of the Kawerau Mongrel Mob leadership, which served as a "massive blow" to organised crime, he said.
O'Brien said the High Court at Tauranga had now ordered forfeiture of a residential property in Kawerau and the proceeds from the sale of a Ford Ranger ute.
He said both were bought with money obtained through "significant criminal activity", namely from the sale and supply of methamphetamine and cannabis, he said.