Sixteen officers from Howick police searched three properties simultaneously, including a P-lab on Burswood Drive in East Tamaki, a second residential home on Alexander Street in Cockle Bay, and a storage unit in East Tamaki.
They located their target, a 42-year-old Caucasian man, at the Alexander Street property, which is his girlfriend’s family home and one of two addresses used by him.
They also found precursor material used for making methamphetamine there, along with stolen goods and cannabis.
Sergeant Tony Curry, of the tactical crime unit based at Howick police station, says the most distressing thing about the operation was that the man’s girlfriend had her young children living there.
Officers searched the Burswood Drive property using a “warrant on suspicion of some stolen computers and the minute we got in there we came across a full scale P-lab”, Mr Curry told the Times.
The police’s clandestine lab specialists were immediately called in to decontaminate the scene. Thousands of dollars in cash, live ammunition, stolen property and a substantial amount of cannabis was also found inside the property.
“It’s serious stuff when you are producing meth and you’ve got a combination of a lot of live air pistols,” says Mr Curry.
“It’s a residential house in a busy suburban area. The big thing we worry about is possible explosions.
Mr Curry says busting a methamphetamine operation of this calibre is “an absolutely outstanding result”. He says the operation on July 30 was the culmination of about a month of working with informants but police did not know the man was manufacturing P on this scale.
People living in Burswood Drive say their neighbourhood is sleepy, with nothing much to worry about other than cats being run over occasionally.
They have not seen any obvious criminal activity and the only slightly unusual activity around the property has been a significant number of cars and trucks – parked up, or coming and going.
Police say the property, which is across the road from a children’s park and school bus drop-off point, is a family home and was either sold to the offender by his parents or vice-versa.
Burswood resident Ricky Govender says: “My kids play at that park and there are always children riding their bikes around the area.
“It’s a total shock that something like that is happening in our neighbourhood.”
Police say “nothing of real interest” was found at the third property, a storage unit in East Tamaki rented by the offender.
“There was a possible stolen car inside but we couldn’t get any serial numbers off it. It’s still under investigation.”
The man arrested by police has been charged with the manufacture of methamphetamine, a class A drug; possession of methamphetamine; cultivation of cannabis; and possession of cannabis with intent to supply.
The man’s girlfriend has been charged with possession of methamphetamine, receiving stolen goods and cultivating cannabis.
Mr Curry says: “It’s up the courts how long his sentence will be. But I can say for manufacturing P it is life imprisonment.”
