Waikato police bust major P lab

File photo / NZ Herald

One of the biggest drug busts in New Zealand was uncovered this week with police seizing methamphetamine with a market value of millions of dollars at a property north of Taupo.

Police say the large discovery is expected to curb organised crime in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty.

Officers arrested a man leaving the large property at Oruanui about 5.30am yesterday carrying a bag of methamphetamine or 'P' and $157,000 in cash.

Police discovered large amounts of methamphetamine with a street value of about $800,000, cash, chemicals and fire arms following a search of a number of sheds and an old bus also on the property.

Detective senior sergeant Nigel Keall of Waikato CIB said the additional 21kgs of precursor material found would have produced another 4.5 to 6.5kgs of the illegal drug.

Police were yesterday still searching the property and expected to uncover more.

Operation Sonny was set up to track down David John Harries who has been on the run since December 2010 and the 14 month investigation led Police to the large scale operation. Searches in Waitomo and Cambridge were also carried out and P, cash and an unknown liquid was uncovered from the Cambridge property. Three men including Harries and a woman were arrested as a result of the searches.

Mr Keall said the bust, significantly bigger than the Newcastle Rd bust in Hamilton a few years ago and the second biggest - if not the biggest operation to be uncovered ever in New Zealand - would make a significant dent in organised crime in the central North Island.

"The link between methamphetamine and other drug offending and serious violence offences, intimidation, burglary and theft has been well documented and researched with a seizure of this size and apprehension of the associated people we would expect a significant downstream reduction on that type of offending on the Bay of Plenty and Waikato policing district."

He said the lab at Oruanui was the "pinnacle" of the operation but Police would be carrying out other investigations as a result of other information they had collected.

"We are very buoyed by the success, however given the intelligence we had received, given the indication from our investigation prior to actually executing the search warrant we knew it was likely to be a significant find."

About 80 officers were involved in yesterday's operation.

Two men, aged 43 and 56, appeared in the Taupo District Court yesterday on drugs charged relating to the manufacturing and supply of P. While a 50-year-old man appeared in the Hamilton District Court yesterday on three P charges and a 28-year-old woman arrested at a Waitomo property also appeared on drugs charges.