The number of illegal guns attributed to a nationwide crackdown on gangs over the past 12 months includes firearms discovered during routine police callouts and other investigations into organised crime, the Herald can reveal.
Operation Tauwhiro was launched in February last year by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster, as a targeted response to a recent escalation in gun violence between rival gangs and high-profile shootings in public.
Police confiscated 1531 firearms over the next 12 months and in March announced that Operation Tauwhiro would be extended to run until the end of June.
The number of firearms taken out of criminal hands is often referred to by Police Minister Poto Williams as a result of Labour's tough stance on gangs, in response to the National Party's criticism of the Government.
However, data provided to the Herald shows fewer firearms were found during Operation Tauwhiro than the three previous calendar years: 1862 (2020), 1790 (2019), and 1626 (2018).
The police are also unable to say how many of the 1531 firearms were seized from gangs as a direct result of Operation Tauwhiro investigations, or instead from routine 111 police responses and other organised crime investigations already under way.
"Operation Tauwhiro is a national umbrella operation that focuses police teams on the seizure of firearms, but it also generally captures investigations during the period that met the criteria (firearms in possession of gang members)," the police confirmed in response to an Official Information Act request by the Herald.
"As a consequence of this, New Zealand Police does not capture information that differentiates the investigation of gang firearm seizures outside of the overarching Operation Tauwhiro."
Williams gave a similar written answer to Mark Mitchell, the National Party police spokesman who has been ramping up the pressure on the Police Minister in recent weeks.
A former police officer, Mitchell told the Herald that Williams repeatedly cites Operation Tauwhiro as a strong government response to gangs and gang violence.
"The reality is Operation Tauwhiro is business as usual," said Mitchell.
"It captures everything staff were already doing. Front-line police officers have been instructed to record any interaction with gang members, guns seized or warrants executed against Operation Tauwhiro.
"This creates a false impression that Operation Tauwhiro is responsible for the numbers provided when in fact most of those numbers would have been achieved even if Tauwhiro didn't exist."
In response to Mitchell's comments, Williams said Operation Tauwhiro had been a "resounding success" and quoted the seizure of 1531 guns and 54kg of methamphetamine in just 12 months.
"Our Government has no tolerance for gangs or crime, which is why our Government has committed a record level of investment – $450 million – in Police leading to the largest police force ever in New Zealand history," said Williams.
"We are hitting gangs where it hurts: their pockets. In the last four years the Police have seized more than $500 million in cash and assets from gangs."
However, the $500m figure quoted by Williams is inflated by several "high value" cases where bank accounts in New Zealand have been frozen but the crimes were allegedly committed overseas.
This includes $140m restrained from an alleged Russian hacker and $70m forfeited by a Chinese-Canadian businessman, which are the two largest criminal proceeds cases in New Zealand history.
As the head of the National Organised Crime Group, Detective Superintendent Greg Williams is careful not to be drawn on any political claims on the success, or otherwise, of Operation Tauwhiro.
He acknowledged the number of firearms seized during the 12-month operation was slightly down on previous years, but pointed out Tauwhiro only counted guns seized from gangs - not all firearms as in previous years.
The Delta lockdown in Auckland also had an impact, said Greg Williams, as fewer search warrants were conducted by police in the second half of 2021.
But the senior detective says the success of Tauwhiro can be measured in more than just numbers.
"It would have been easy for us to do a six-month operation to kick in doors and take guns. But the concern was around the kind of firepower the gangs have access to, and they're more willing to use them.
"We're talking AR-15s and AK-47s, shotguns and pistols. So the wider focus for Tauwhiro was to look at how gangs and organised crime were getting their guns, and disrupting those illicit supply chains."
For many years, the police have believed that most firearms in criminal hands are stolen from legitimate gun owners.
But Greg Williams said the number of stolen firearms had actually decreased and Operation Tauwhiro analysis of gun sales showed "straw purchasing" - a tactic also known as retail diversion where licensed firearms owners sell guns to criminals - was a much bigger problem than previously thought.
Eight individuals were prosecuted including meth dealer Gordon McRae, as first revealed by the Herald, who in some cases swapped drugs for guns.
But the smattering of case studies were not treated as individual bad apples. Instead, the recently established Firearms Investigation Team cast the net wider and is now analysing 150,000 gun sales from the past two-and-half years.
This month, the New Zealand Police will also gain access to an international database, eTrace, which is run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in the United States.
The system allows law enforcement agencies around the world to share manufacturing and sales data, to help investigators trace illegal firearms as far back as the factory plant where they were made.
Eventually, the police will be able to join the eTrace technology with firearms import data held by the New Zealand Customs.
Working more closely with overseas law enforcement is already paying dividends. Greg Williams said that the police yesterday charged an Auckland man with illegally trafficking firearms from the United States.
"We're not just looking at retail diversion but manufacturing in New Zealand. We expect to see more 3D printing of guns, and we expect to see more in the way of importing from overseas.
"I don't think anyone knows how many guns are out there. Gangs have always had guns, but it is increasing and we're seeing a greater propensity to use them.
"What we're trying to do with Tauwhiro is change the entire environment and disrupt the illicit supply of firearms. We are changing the way we investigate firearms, alongside the regulatory changes."
This new focus on the illicit supply chains is being closely co-ordinated with the tightening of regulations in the wake of the Christchurch terror attacks.
As well as banning semi-automatic weapons, the Labour Government introduced a national firearms register as part of its wider gun reforms.
From June next year, each individual firearm will need to be registered to a licence holder. A loophole which allows the private sale of firearms without recording the details of the new owner will also be closed.
