Bay police help in $6M drug bust

Almost 40 Headhunter Outlaw Motorcycle club members, made up of patched, prospects and associates, are facing methamphetamine-related charges following the termination of four investigations in the upper North Island.

Police have seized in excess of $4 million in cash, methamphetamine and precursors with an estimated street value of $4 million, restrained assets worth $9.1 million and confiscated 22 firearms as a result of the investigation.


Police seized cash, methamphetamine, firearms and other assets during the raids.

All of the operations were centred on organised criminal activity connected to the Headhunters gang and involved officers from the Bay of Plenty and Waikato.

This morning police from the Organised and Financial Crime Agency New Zealand and Northland District arrested 13 Headhunter associates and prospects after executing a number of search warrants in and around Whangarei.

Detective Inspector Bruce Good from OFCANZ says this morning's arrests included the discovery of methamphetamine with an estimated street value of $2.5 million in a Mercedes motor vehicle on the Auckland motorway in November.

'Leading up to our termination this morning we had discovered a large scale methamphetamine manufacturing operation based in a rural location close to Whangarei,” he says.

'We believe this operation was coordinated by and for the Headhunters OMCG. On November 14, police pulled over a Mercedes which had been driven from Whangarei to Auckland by two Headhunter gang associates aged 17 and 18.

'Inside the vehicle we discovered methamphetamine with an estimated street value of $2.5 million which Police believe was bound for the Auckland market and beyond.”

Detective Inspector Kevin Burke from Northland District says two clan labs, three firearms and a small amount of cannabis and methamphetamine were also discovered during this morning's termination.

'Police intelligence indicates that this Whangarei operation had the capacity to produce $3 million worth of methamphetamine per week,” says Kevin

'During these operations search warrants were executed in seven of the 12 Police districts which illustrate the scope of this organised criminal network.”

On December 10, police from OFCANZ, Counties Manukau District and Waikato District terminated another operation which targeted the manufacture and supply of methamphetamine in Auckland and Waikato.

Bruce says during this operation $1million in cash, a cache of stolen weapons, a taser and several thousand rounds of ammunition were discovered at the Miranda address of a senior patched member of the Headhunters.

'Last week nine suspects, all with links to the Headhunters, were arrested during the termination,” he adds.

'This followed the execution of a number of search warrants in Onehunga, Otahuhu and rural South Auckland.”

Two further clandestine laboratories were located along with chemicals and precursors necessary for the manufacture of methamphetamine.

'We believe that several of the weapons seized from the Miranda property were part of a cache stolen from a Bucklands Beach gun collector in June,” says Bruce.

'This indicates that the Headhunters members and associates are not only manufacturing and supplying methamphetamine, they are also involved in a range of organised criminal activity.”

The Miranda property raided on Thursday is the same rural address that police targeted during the termination of an operation in May.

Bruce acknowledged that the Whangarei operation shutdown this morning may have been one of the clan labs used by the Headhunters to supply the South Island methamphetamine market.

'When you have cooks producing $3 million worth of methamphetamine in three days you start to see the size of the problem,” he says.

While the Headhunters were the target of operations, Bruce says there were several other organised criminal groups running similar methamphetamine operations.

'They are well organised, well-resourced and seemingly highly profitable,” he adds.

'Police will continue to work hard to reduce the harm that methamphetamine causes in our community by targeting the organised criminal groups that manufacture and supply this destructive drug.

'I would like to acknowledge police from Northland, Waitemata, Auckland, Counties-Manukau, Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Tasman Districts for their assistance during these investigations.

'Our investigation into the Headhunters and other like gangs methamphetamine operations is on-going.”

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2 comments

Wisechief

Posted on 17-12-2014 10:09 | By Wise Chief

Well done Police State soldiers and please do keep the pressure on when dealing with these evil b******s and especially those who make and peddle this crap in our communities. Do utmost to cut imports of raw precursors. By rights we should hang the lot of these a-holes as they do in most other countries. How many deaths have these human vermin been involved in for hat remains the proverbial question here? Well done, keep it up.


How brave...

Posted on 17-12-2014 13:12 | By penguin

...they think they are, hiding under the "patch" while they ruin the lives of people through drugs and criminal activities. The irony is that the gang title of headhunters has come back to bite them when they, themselves, were hunted down!


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