AML / CFT: New Zealand gets a taste of foreign-style crime
Canada is a wonderfully peaceful place - most of the time. But outlaw motorcycle gangs and widespread cannabis cultivation are omnipresent threats. No one expected to find similar problems in New Zealand - until yesterday.
NZD40 million worth of cannabis plants have been seized culminating in a raid yesterday by New Zealand Police on a farm in Hawke's Bay. It's the latest in a series of raids in the past fortnight in which more than 120,000 plants have been found.
The crops have been hidden in houses, mainly in rural or semi rural areas, in maize fields and in woodland - including managed forests.
It's not the first time such an operation has been carried out in the area: last year a large number plants were seized and destroyed and almost 50 people arrested. This year, the number arrested is nearer 40.
In Nelson, the "Red Devils" motorcycle gang has been the subject of a large scale operation lasting more than a year to gather the necessary evidence. Like the outlaw motorcycle gangs in Canada, Australia and Scandinavia, they were found to have bomb making equipment, heavy weaponry and quantities of smaller firearms - and illegal drugs. 15 arrests have been made in Nelson and Marlborough.
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