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Police raided a number of gang addresses in a major operation. - Source: ONE News -
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A gang expert is warning that the Rebels motorcycle gang is too big to be taken down with just one blow.
It comes as gang members packed into North Island courts today after yesterday's massive police raids.
While police said yesterday the operation would have struck a "blow to the bowel" of the gang, a gang expert said it will take more than one operation.
"It's like a kingdom with a number of little fiefdoms and the
central club interferes very little with what each chapter does,"
Australian gang expert Arthur Veno told ONE News.
Veno says police were right to take the threat seriously.
The Rebels are Australia's largest motorbike gang, with nearly 4000 members, and are major players in Australia's methamphetamine market.
More than 100 police across five policing districts were involved in the co-ordinated operation focused on gangs, methamphetamine and organised crime.
A total of 30 people were arrested and more arrests are anticipated. Police seized 29 vehicles, including BMWs, Mercedes and Harley-Davidson motorcycles, more than $120,000 in cash, firearms, gang patches, cannabis and methamphetamine.
A clan lab has been located in Murupara and records of a Palmerston North finance company, now under investigation, have been seized.
The operation is the culmination of several months of covert policing.
Around half of those arrested face charges related to methamphetamine.
Twenty-seven people have appeared in court or have dates scheduled. The youngest person arrested was a 16-year-old in Palmerston North.
Police say they will continue to disrupt the establishment of the Rebels and any other criminal gangs in New Zealand.
"There's been a big strike on them yesterday and we'll continue to focus our efforts on this gang to make sure they don't get established here," said Detective Superintendent Brett Kane.
Kane told TV ONE's Breakfast that yesterday's massive drug bust shows how successful the police have been in shutting down the criminal behaviour of gangs.
He said police have been working closely with their Australian counterparts to try to stamp out the presence of Australia's biggest outlaw biking gang, Rebels MC, here in New Zealand.
"Yesterday's operation was a good indication of the success, we've also seen the Wanganui police move towards including the gang in their patch bylaw," he said.
Police said the sting has exposed what is believed to be an organised and large scale methamphetamine distribution network.
Kane said the gang members are known criminals and some had patched over from other gangs to join the Rebels.
He said the gang is dangerous and has been involved in serious crimes in Australia.
"It's been drug dealing, use of methamphetamine, cannabis, cocaine, intimidation, extortion, violence, serious violence, homicide and inter-gang rivalry and violence," he said.
He said the gang's arrival in New Zealand has been strategic.
"In the past couple of decades some New Zealander's have gone
over to Australia to join up with those gangs, particularly the
Rebels, there are family links back to here and they have made a
strategic
decision to expand internationally and New Zealand is part of those
plans."
Detective Inspector Chris Bensemann said at a media conference yesterday that the gang's presence "won't be tolerated."
"We're not going to accept that they're just going to float over and patch people willy-nilly," he said.
Bensemann said the majority of people involved in producing and dealing methamphetamine were drawing WINZ benefits and "squeezing the taxpayer dry" while making huge amounts of money.
In excess of 40 search warrants were executed at addresses in Palmerston North, Feilding, Levin, Foxton, Otaki, Whanganui, Murupara, Hamilton, Auckland and Northland during yesterday's raids.
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