{"id":18319,"date":"2026-08-25T13:10:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T01:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18319"},"modified":"2026-08-25T13:10:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T01:10:03","slug":"auckland-drug-ring-busted-members-deported","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18319","title":{"rendered":"Auckland drug ring busted, members deported"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Police say they have shut down one of the largest syndicates operating and supplying cannabis grow houses across Auckland.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Officers executed 19 search warrants last week, including in Flat Bush, Howick, Sylvia Park, Wiri and Massey.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Twelve people allegedly linked to a Vietnamese organised crime group were arrested, including a 36-year-old Flat Bush man who police said was the operation’s kingpin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Officers seized $1.2 million worth of cannabis cultivation equipment, $80,000 in cash, as well as around 35kg of cannabis and several large bags of MDMA pills.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

A pistol and ammunition was also found at a Massey property.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

It was part of a 10-month operation during which police seized more than five tonnes of cannabis material at more than 50 rental properties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Detective Senior Sergeant John Brunton said Operation Blackout provided unprecedented insight into the sophisticated criminal operation based out of suburban Auckland.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“We have deliberately taken the time to investigate the syndicate’s activities and build a picture of its network, which we will allege is one of the largest of its kind.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“Police have been working closely with a range of agencies as part of the investigation, learning more about the syndicate’s criminal activities. This includes allegations of supplying cannabis cultivation equipment, cannabis cultivation and money laundering.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Police laid dozens of changes in the investigation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Brunton said 11 Vietnamese nationals, who were acting as “crop-sitters”, were deported after being located during search warrants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“Five further crop-sitters remain in New Zealand pending prosecution. Police continue to work with Immigration New Zealand through this process.”<\/p>\n

Source: RNZ<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Police say they have shut down one of the largest syndicates operating and supplying cannabis grow houses across Auckland. Officers executed 19 search warrants last week, including in Flat Bush, Howick, Sylvia Park, Wiri and Massey. Twelve people allegedly linked to a Vietnamese organised crime group were arrested, including a 36-year-old Flat Bush man who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18321,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18319\/revisions\/18321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}