A young cannabis dealer slain with a hammer had told his father that some boys had threatened to kill him, the High Court heard.

A fugitive from the law showed exceptionally violent, confident and calculating behaviour.

A senior judge has vowed to crack down on a violent crime wave, which he says is sometimes "little more than sheer sadism".

Over 50 people in the lower North Island face a combined 200 charges following a police operation targeting drug offending.

Asian crime syndicates are using foreign students in some of Auckland's best high schools to receive illegal shipments of the drugs used to produce methamphetamine.

In the biggest methamphetamine bust in New Zealand this year, 6kg of the the class A drug was intercepted at Auckland airport.

Sniffer dogs are being brought into schools amid growing concern about the escalating number of children found in possession of drugs.

A visitor to a women's prison has been arrested after staff found more than $20,000 and drugs worth $10,000 in his car.