Raids net bikes, cars, drugs
A stolen car ring, a bike theft ring and a cannabis operation were among the big discoveries during a district-wide police operation in Canterbury.
Dubbed Operation Prodigy, nearly all of Canterbury’s 1000 police officers from Timaru to North Canterbury were involved in the operation from 6am Tuesday to late yesterday.
Community services manager Senior Sergeant Roy Appley said yesterday’s focus was on investigations into a stolen bike ring, discovered through Facebook marketplace and a car ring. Three stolen bikes were found, relating to a group of bike thieves found with five stolen bikes last week.
A national drug investigation is also under way after a raid at a Christchurch home yesterday.
In total, 15 search warrants were completed. More than 70 cannabis plants were seized or destroyed at one property, along with $3000 in cash. Four stolen cars were recovered, while an inert grenade was found at one property, requiring the bomb squad to attend.
More than 50 people, who were either wanted to interview or had a warrant to arrest, were arrested. About 300 places were visited.
About 140 road policing stops were made, with a number of demerit point and infringement notices served.
Appley said the operation, commonly known as ‘‘big days out’’, was about ‘‘holding people to account’’.
‘‘There are three things we’re interested in – safe houses, safe roads and safe communities. The operation has been about targeting one of those things. It’s either been a contact on the road, a contact to do with a location, a house or the community in general,’’ he said.
‘‘At any one time in the district there could be up to 1000 people we either want to arrest or speak to ... so this is a two-day operation where we’re specifically trying to clear as many of those contacts up as possible.’’
The Press went inside the properties as police conducted a search warrant looking for firearms, stolen cars and car parts in Aranui yesterday.
Approaching the front door visitors were greeted with a sticker reading ‘‘f… the police’’.
Inside six members of the Specialist Search Group (SSG) were stationed throughout the home.
One of the officers was standing on a ladder looking through a manhole, others were in the living room turning over furniture, while the freezer and garage were also being examined.
In his notebook, SSG Sergeant Warren Campbell had drawn a sketch of the home broken into specific areas, with the officers to search them in detail.
‘‘Whatever’s named on the warrant, those are things we’re looking for,’’ Campbell said.
Police were also looking for storage devices that may contain ‘‘digital evidence’’, such as hard drives, cellphones and computers.
Inside the kitchen on a clothes rack were number plates police were checking, to see if they belonged to stolen cars.
By the end of their search police had found a stolen car and some stolen car parts.
Appley said the operation, two months in the planning, had been a success.
The Ministry of Health has been called out for its poor organisation of personal protective equipment (PPE) in New Zealand during the
Covid-19 pandemic.
A report from Auditor-General John Ryan says a review ‘‘found gaps’’ in the ministry’s planning for PPE.
It details ‘‘a lack of clarity over roles and responsibilities for both planning for, and providing, PPE in a pandemic’’.
‘‘In our view, a national crisis needs national systems. New Zealand’s health and disability system is semi-devolved, with often complex arrangements.
‘‘Despite having national reserve supplies, in early February
2020 the ministry did not know what PPE stock the DHBs held in their reserve supplies or have a system to forecast demand.’’
In March, in the early stages of New Zealand’s response to the pandemic, the health sector expressed concerns about whether there was enough PPE for the workers who needed it, the report says.
The ministry and DHBs worked hard to adapt their processes during the lockdown and set up a new centralised system for procuring, prioritising, and distributing PPE stock.