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Monday, March 14, 2011

New Zealand - Police raid Nelson gang pad with digger

OFF THE WIRE
stuff.co.nz
Police and their digger
KNOCK, KNOCK:
Police use a digger during
a raid in Nelson.
Bomb making equipment was seized in a gang raid on a Red Devil's house, Police Minister Judith Collins has revealed.
Collins said the ''major'' organised crime bust showed the ''serious risk'' gangs pose.
Police arrested 15 people and expect to arrest more after they crashed a digger through the front entrance of a Red Devils' gang house in Nelson this morning as part of a nation-wide operation targeting gangs.
Police raided about 20 properties in Nelson, Tasman and Marlborough, seizing vehicles, firearms, explosive devices and possibly drugs as part of 18-month-long Operation Explorer, one of the deepest gang infiltrations in the history of the police under cover programme.
The operation, involving 240 staff, including the heavily-armed Special Tactics Group, specialist search teams, armed offenders squads and the army bomb squad, police said in a statement today.
Two properties were also raided in Auckland, including the headquarters of the Hells Angels in Mt Eden.
It's understood the bomb making equipment was discovered at a Mapua property and is not related to terrorist activity.
"This gang has described itself as a social club, but police investigations revealed they were involved in serious criminal activity," Collins said. "Law-abiding social clubs don't have bomb-making equipment, illegal drugs or firearms.
"The discovery of bomb-making equipment is of particular concern because it shows the extreme lengths organised crime will go to in protecting their drug businesses. ''
Fifteen people were arrested this morning, and police expect this number to rise throughout the day as they mopped up the operation.
Details of the final number of arrests and charges were not yet available.
Police this morning said the Red Devils were a puppet gang for the Hells Angels, a prominent global motorcycle gang.
The operation had confirmed the gang's relationship with the Hells Angels and that its primary focus was organised crime, Superintendent Gary Knowles said.
Police will reveal some of the results of the raids this afternoon in Nelson.
- with Andrea Vance