UPDATED 12.52PM: An inner city drug ring has been operating inside Auckland's St Matthew-in-the-City church.

Fourteen people have been arrested in a drugs sting in central Auckland this morning.

Up to 80 police executed warrants on 10 addresses in the city centre, as well as at properties in Te Atatu, Ranui and Manurewa.

Detective Inspector Hayden Mander said the dealing was taking place around a number of premises on Hobson and Wellesley Streets.

"We must make sure that we put medium and long term prevention strategies in place, so we'll be working with the owners of the premises around here to make sure that's done," Mander said.

He says police used plain clothed officers and CCTV footage to uncover drug dealing on a wide scale, often conducted in clear view of the public.

Church vicar Helen Jacobi said she approached police about her concerns.

"We had noticed an increase of activity in the car park which we believed to be drug dealing, people hanging around and even of our clergy being asked one day 'Was the shop open?'"

Jacobi said it's sad to think people have been violating the church's open hospitality policy by selling drugs there.

The carpark is opposite notorious Imperial Gardens Apartments on Hobson St.

Anti-social behaviour at the inner-city apartment block partly owned by Housing New Zealand hit headlines earlier this year. There were 42 complaints, two assaults and a near-fatal stabbing recorded there in two years.

The state housing provider owns 40 of the 278 apartments at Imperial Gardens on Auckland's Hobson St. Residents said they were too scared to use lifts, spa pools, the swimming pool and the gymnasium because of anti-social behaviour.

 Building manager and body corporate spokeswoman Joana Montgomerie said she could not comment on the drug bust.

It is understood Ms Montgomerie lives in an apartment in the building.

She would not say whether police had been inside the building today or whether any residents were arrested.

"It's not appropriate to be talking," she said.

Ms Montgomerie said she could not comment on reports of antisocial behaviour in the past.

A 2014 stabbing in the apartment foyer involved a Housing New Zealand tenant.

The body corporate was forced to increase security and provide a full-time guard on site to reduce anti-social issues -- including vomiting, violence, noise and nudity -- in the building this year.

Additional reporting from NZME staff.