Police raids seize drugs and cash
Billie-Rose Schuler feared the bus she was riding in would roll as it veered first into one ditch and then across a busy Taranaki state highway into the other ditch.
Schuler, 17, was one of a busload of children who escaped serious injury when their school bus crashed on State Highway 3 early yesterday.
‘‘We just missed a car, we were very lucky,’’ Schuler said.
‘‘No one was hurt, but everyone’s a bit shaken up. My first thought was was to make sure the little ones were all right,’’ she said.
‘‘We got the phone call and came down,’’ said her father Shane.
‘‘They’re very lucky there was no other vehicle coming the other way.’’
Police, fire and ambulance staff were called to the scene, just south of Normanby, shortly after 8am.
Traffic was down to one lane and southbound traffic was diverted around a back road.
Constable Rebecca Sherie, of Hawera, said nobody had been injured apart from some bumps and bruises.
Ambulance staff had checked everyone at the scene and the children who had not been collected by their families were taken to their schools on a replacement bus.
Sherie said the cause of the crash would not be known until the driver was interviewed. There were deep gouges for metres along the left-hand side of the road where the bus had swerved.
Hawera High School principal Hans Konlechner said there were children from four schools on the bus, which was carrying students aged 5 to 18-years-old. Armed police seized a significant amount of methamphetamine and cash after a series of raids around north Taranaki early yesterday.
Police executed four search warrants, two in Bell Block and two inland from Waitara, as part of an ongoing operation that has been running during the last few weeks targeting the supply of the Class A drug in the region.
Three people were arrested, and a substantial amount of cash and methamphetamine, more than 20 grams with a street value of about $20,000, was recovered from the addresses.
Local staff were assisted by the Wellington clan lab team, Armed Offenders Squad staff and Welling- ton asset recovery team in searching the properties in the Taranaki area.
The asset recovery team also seized a number of vehicles from the properties.
Two people have been charged, a 55-year-old man and a 56-year-old woman, and were due to appear in court charged with conspiracy to supply methamphetamine.
Detective Senior Sergeant Brent Matuku said investigations were ongoing and further charges and arrests could be made as the work progressed.
‘‘Methamphetamine is a very harmful and highly addictive drug, not only to those who take it, but to their family and the wider community,’’ the Taranaki area investigations manager said.
Matuku said police would continue to target those who supplied methamphetamine within the community and hold them to account for their crimes.
‘‘We encourage anyone with information relating to people manufacturing or supplying drugs to get in touch with us.’’
No firearms were found during the searches.
Meanwhile Hamilton Police, assisted by the Northern asset recovery team, also executed a search warrants in relation to the operation.
While documents were seized no arrests were made.