Armed Offenders Squad teams from Auckland, Bay of Plenty and Waikato had a hand in the arrest of four men this morning.

The men are now facing numerous charges including robbery, assault and threatening to kill.

Detective Inspector Graham Pitkethley says the accused were arrested following searches at seven Te Kuiti addresses, in relation to recent offending in the area.

The men aged 41, 46, 49, and 53 are due in Hamilton District Court today.

Between them face the following charges:

*Assault with intent to injure
*Threatening to cause grievous bodily harm
*Robbery
*Wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
*Demands with Menace x4
*Theft x4
*Participate in organised criminal group x4
*Threatening to kill x7

All four of those arrested have connections to gangs, says Graham.

'Further charges are likely to follow.”

Along with the arrests, police also seized two gang patches and a number of gang T-shirts, cannabis plant material, seeds, and oil, a Hawa rifle, a Winchester .22, a Marlin .480 rifle, a Magnum 44 rifle, a cut-down .177 rifle and an assortment of ammunition including a large number of shotgun cartridges.

Graham says it's pleasing to be able to hold offenders to account.

'This shows that we take offending of this nature extremely seriously and will not hesitate to bring people before the courts.

'We do not tolerate intimidating behaviour in our communities and want to reassure members of the public that Police will continue to do everything we can to stamp out this violent offending.

'We continue to encourage anyone with information about criminal offending, or those concerned for their safety or that of anyone else, to come forward to Police or Crimestoppers.”