Southern District Police Target Cannabis Growers in Operation Lime

Southern Police this morning executed eight search warrants on business and residential properties in Invercargill and Dunedin as part of the national police undercover operation codenamed Operation Lime, targeting businesses and individuals responsible for the commercial sale of equipment used in growing cannabis.

The warrants related to three business and three residential properties in Dunedin, and one business and one residential property in Invercargill.

As a result of these warrants police made five arrests on charges relating to the illegal supply of equipment to the cannabis industry. In addition to that, a number of those arrested will be facing cultivation of cannabis charges as a result of evidence found during the search warrants today.

In addition to these eight warrants executed this morning, a further four search warrants were carried out in Dunedin as a result of initial investigations during the day. These warrants are ongoing.

Police would not name the properties involved.

Southern District Crime Services Manager, Detective Inspector Steve McGregor, said police undercover officers were deployed in the Southern District as early as 2008 and were sold equipment from the businesses and given advice on how to grow cannabis.

"These businesses appear to have been committing these offences and supporting commercial cannabis growers and organised crime over a long period," he said.

"As a result of the national operation, Southern District police initiated a second operation codenamed Operation Bitters, targeting customers who had purchased equipment from Operation Lime targets," Detective Inspector McGregor said.

"As of this morning, 38 search warrants have been executed throughout the Southern District at residential addresses of customers who visited these businesses. More than 84% of these customers, or 32 of them, were involved in indoor cannabis cultivation," he said.

As part of Operation Bitters, in excess of 1200 cannabis plants were located in Southern District, Detective Inspector McGregor said.

Nationally, as of this morning, 114 indoor grows of varying sizes had been located during the course of secondary operations as part of Operation Lime.

Southern District's 32 search warrants identifying cannabis grows contributed to 28% of that success, Detective Inspector McGregor said.

"The success of these two operations (Lime and Bitters) to date suggests that cannabis remains the major drug problem in the Southern District and this corroborates with evidence obtained during the recently concluded Operation Rocket, which targeted the activities of the Mongrel Mob Aotearoa in Dunedin."

"Southern District Police are committed to reducing the impact of organised crime and the harm that cannabis does to our communities - our involvement in this national operation is yet another example of this," Detective Inspector McGregor said.

Cannabis remains the most abused controlled drug in NZ, with an estimated $800 million dollars per annum involved in the industry.