Town turns in druggies

Turangi people have had "a gutsful" of drug dealers, says the town's police chief.

Locals were contacting the police regularly and officers were acting on the information, said Senior Sergeant Dennis Murphy.

"The gloves are off. If you are a big fish or a little fish dealing drugs in Turangi you are going to be caught."

He said his staff were seeing a link between drug dealing and property offending such as burglary. The crimes were "overlapping".

A police raid in Turangi on Thursday netted $20,000 worth of cannabis packaged for sale from drug houses.

About two-thirds of the haul was at one property.

Three men and two women were arrested.