Police expand drive against drug crime

Police have clamped down on methamphetamine and cannabis-selling operations. Photo / Martin Sykes

Waikato police are expanding a three-year operation targeting drug crime.

More than 350 people have been arrested in Hamilton during Operation Persil, which has clamped down on weapons and methamphetamine and cannabis-selling operations, as well as stolen goods.

The operation will now be expanded to include the whole district and officers have already executed warrants, searches and vehicle stops in Te Kuiti, Te Awamutu, Te Aroha, Huntly, Matamata and Morrinsville.

Waikato district commander Superintendent Win van der Velde said the operation was all about preventing and disrupting criminal activity and struck at the heart of offender behaviour.

"A lot of the warrants to arrest are for people breaching court-imposed sanctions such as bail. Our message to those people, their friends and family, is adhere to these conditions or you can expect police action, any time of the day.

"At the same time we are concentrating on the correlation between the illegal drug trade and the trade in stolen goods, people stealing your goods to fund their drug habits."

By saturating the district a clear message was being sent to those making money from crime, he said.

"We call them criminal specialists, people who steal to make their money or who receive stolen goods and move them on in return for cash, drugs or other items."

Among the arrests in the latest sting were two men in Hamilton's Ulster St Motel - one arrested for an existing warrant and charged with possession of a Taser, possession of methamphetamine and cannabis and another charged with possession of a methamphetamine pipe.

A police search of a suspected "tinnie house" in the area recovered six one-ounce bags of cannabis leaf and 30 cannabis cigarettes packaged in tinfoil.

In Ngaruawahia, eight arrests were made including a 38-year-old woman and a 42-year-old man.

Often police recovered electronics but had no way of proving they were stolen, Mr van der Velde said. He recommended recording serial numbers, microdot markers or serial number recording programmes.

OPERATION PERSIL

* Hamilton: More than 350 arrests over three years including 14 in the last week.

* Te Awamutu: Three arrests and several truants caught.

* Morrinsville: Several warrants relating to outstanding fines; arrest of a 29-year-old woman after the discovery of two hydroponic growing rooms in which 40 plants were found in one room and 10 in another.

* Huntly-Ngaruawahia: Eight arrests including two people at a P lab.

* Te Kuiti-Otorohanga: One drugs arrest and one arrest relating to 15 burglaries.