P labs moving north after crackdown in Auckland

Pure methamphetamine makers may be heading to isolated parts of North Auckland after being squeezed out of Auckland, police say.

Two laboratories for making the drug, known as P, have been found in homes at Mangawhai this month and the town's sole policeman is urging property owners to scrutinise potential tenants.

Men arrested in relation to the labs came from outside the area and Mangawhai Senior Constable Graham Gough said the men may have moved to the area after coming under pressure from police in larger centres.

The first lab was found at a rental address near Mangawhai Heads on October 2.

"There was a strong glue smell, which is attributed to one of the solvents used to manufacture methamphetamine," Mr Gough said. "The place reeked -- and I mean reeked -- of solvents."

All the doors and windows at the address were closed and the curtains were drawn to keep the distinctive smell in.

The lab was only partially set up and no methamphetamine had been made.

Five men, aged in their 20s, were arrested and charged with drug-related offences. Most of them were from the Waitakere region in West Auckland.

"The CIB in those large areas have been leaning on these guys and it's got them coming to these areas."

A Hibiscus Coast man was arrested after a second lab was found at an address on October 15.

The arrest followed a neighbour reporting suspicious behaviour and a confrontation at the address in which a gun was drawn.

Mr Gough urged homeowners to ask for full disclosure from tenants before renting their houses.

Kaipara District Council chief executive Jack McKerchar said both methamphetamine-affected houses could not be lived in again until they were cleaned to strict regulations.

A total of eight houses in the Kaipara area have been condemned after P labs were found inside.

Mr McKerchar said when a P lab was found in a house the house had to be thoroughly cleaned, at a cost of about $5000, before it could be deemed habitable.

"We have responsibilities under health and safety legislation and hazardous substances legislation, usually they are condemned as unlivable. We put it in our records so that anyone who gets a LIM report knows a P Lab has been there and we say whether the house has been cleaned up."

Whangarei police Detective Sergeant Grant Smith said it was always a concern when drug manufacturers moved into isolated rural areas that were hard to police.

Most of the labs found in the Whangarei district had been set up by locals but a few out-of-towners were coming into the area.

He estimated about half a dozen houses in the area had been deemed to be too contaminated to live in after P lab busts.

"Landlords should be careful when checking out prospective tenants."

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)