Operation Atlas: Police seize guns, ammunition during Wairoa search warrants

The Carl Gustav .308 rifle and the Escort Legacy semi-automatic 12-gauge shotgun seized near Wairoa by police on Friday. Photo / NZ Police

Guns and ammunition have been seized and a 27-year-old man arrested after police searched a home near Wairoa.

Wairoa area response manager senior sergeant Maui Aben said four firearms, shotgun cartridges and rifle rounds of several different calibres were found at a home on Lake Rd, Frasertown.

A 27-year-old man, a member of the Frastertown Black Power chapter, was arrested at the house and charged with four counts of unlawful possession of a firearm and one of unlawful possession of explosives, namely ammunition.

He was due to appear in the Gisborne District Court today.

Police located this Heckler & Koch .22 rifle at an address near Wairoa on Friday. Photo / NZ Police

Aben said a Heckler & Koch .22 rifle, a Marlin .22 rifle, an Escort Legacy semi-automatic 12-gauge shotgun and a Carl Gustav .308 rifle were seized.

Police still needed to find out where the guns had come from and whether they had been used in any recent incidents in the Wairoa area, Aben said.

A Marlin .22 rifle, one of the four firearms seized during a police raid in Wairoa on Friday. Photo / NZ Police

"Seizing these firearms and getting them out of the hands of those who should not have them is significant for our community."

The search warrant was a part of police's Operation Atlas, focused on organised crime and gang-related offending across the eastern police district, but Wairoa particularly.

Senior sergeant Maui Aben has recently been appointed as the new area response manager for Wairoa. Photo / Supplied

"The search warrant was undertaken by local Wairoa Police with the support of staff from the wider Tairawhiti area and other districts."