Police have raided properties linked to the Mongrel Mob across the North Island this morning following an investigation into alleged distribution of methamphetamine. 

Search warrants have been executed in the eastern Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Auckland, Rotorua, Taupo and Hawke’s Bay. 

The operation has been led by the National Organised Crime Group [NOCG], a branch of the police that specialises in covert inquiries. 

The NOCG investigations usually focus on the upper echelon of crime syndicates smuggling drugs into New Zealand, such as the 515kg of meth hidden inside steel beams from the United States. 

Other recent investigations have targeted the Comancheros outlaw motorcycle gang, which has genuine links to organised crime groups overseas. 

But on other occasions, NOCG has focused on local gangs, often in smaller towns, whose drug dealing is having a disproportionate effect on the community. 

The Herald understands that the raids this morning are the result of a covert investigation into alleged drug dealing by the Barbarians chapter of the Mongrel Mob based in Ōpōtiki. 

According to drug testing of the wastewater, Ōpōtiki is consistently among the rural towns or regions with the highest levels of meth when calculated on a per capita basis. 

A police spokesperson said a press conference with Detective Superintendent Greg Williams, the head of NOCG, and Superintendent Tim Anderson, the Bay of Plenty district commander, would be held in Tauranga this afternoon. 

The raids on the Mongrel Mob Barbarians come one year after the death of the chapter’s president who had publicly taken an anti-drug stance. 

Jared Savage is an award-winning journalist who covers crime and justice issues, with a particular interest in organised crime. He joined the Herald in 2006, and is the author of Gangland and Gangster’s Paradise.