Counties Manukau police highlight the work they have done in Operation Tauwhiro that has seized 1,369 firearms, made 1,161 arrests in relation to firearms offences and seized more than 52,000 grams of methamphetamine. Video / NZ Police
New Zealand Police are working with international authorities to stay at the “cutting edge” of innovations in how criminals are accessing firearms - including through 3D printing.
Top cop Detective Superintendent Greg Williams said New Zealand is in discussions with groups across Australasia as well as agencies further afield in a bid to stay a step ahead of developing technology and assess how criminals are using it.
“We all want to be at a position of being there at the cutting edge to see how this develops,” said Williams, the director of the National Organised Crime Group.
While the number of 3D-printed guns being seized locally is relatively small, police are starting to find more across the country, he said.
Of particular concern was that many of these 3D-printed guns were created to look like toys such as Nerf guns or gel blasters.
“Of course, every police officer would be trained to treat any firearm pointed at them as real until otherwise determined.”
At the moment police are seizing fewer than 20 printed firearms each year, Williams estimated. “Year to year we have seen an increase in numbers that we are coming across.”
In comparison, in the first year of Operation Tauwhiro, a police effort to disrupt the supply of firearms to criminal groups, about 1500 firearms were seized. Meanwhile, Operation Cobalt, which targets gang activity, counted more than 400 firearms seized in one year. The actual number of total seized firearms per year, including those seized outside of these two operations, is in the thousands.
Williams noted the concept of criminals creating their own guns was not a new one.
“The very first time I encountered this sort of concept around manufacturing was actually in the mid-90s in Christchurch. We had a Hells Angels chapter come to Christchurch to meet with one of the local gangs.”
He explained police carried out a search warrant of a hotel room a gang member had been staying in, and discovered the man had downloaded instructions from the internet showing how to build a machine gun.
While criminals now are more likely to buy 3D printers to build their guns, these still had their limitations.
“New Zealand is innovative so it was no great surprise we started to see 3D-printed guns starting to appear.”
A 3D-printed gun seized by police in Hawke's Bay in 2021. Photo / NZ Police
At this point, 3D-printed guns still require some parts that cannot be printed, such as bearings and springs, and these often had to be imported before the gun could fire.
“You can print off all the basic guts of it but you need those springs and other pieces to make it actually work.
“3D-printed guns present an issue for us but in the realm of firearms, no less or more dangerous than a pistol. There’s no doubt that that may evolve as well.
This 3D-printed gun was recovered during a raid on a property in West Auckland in 2021. Photo / NZ Police
Printing the firearms themselves is also not the only problem, groups can also access materials to modify existing guns.
“You can access a piece of plastic that you can add to a Glock pistol and it . . . turns it into a machine pistol.”
Gangs and organised crime groups have always wanted guns either to protect themselves or stand over people, Williams said.
In 2021 police launched Operation Tauwhiro, which Williams referred to as the “disruption of illicit firearms”.
Williams said many guns were making their way from licensed suppliers through less legitimate channels to the hands of criminals.
Detective Superintendent Greg Williams of the National Organised Crime Group said he first encountered the concept of manufacturing guns in the mid-90s. File photo / Brett Phibbs
Others were being stolen from licensed holders during burglaries, some were being imported from overseas and others were being manufactured. Some were being manufactured without serial numbers, making them untraceable. These were known as “ghost guns”.
Williams said the rise in manufactured guns might suggest police efforts to disrupt firearm supply through other means were having some success.
“You start to wonder whether we’re actually having impact on the supplier line, which is a good news story. The work we are doing collectively is impacting the supply of firearms into gangs.”
Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.
