RUSSIAN CELEBRATIONS ❯❯ PAGE 11
FATAL FIRE KILLS 3 IN FLAT BUSH
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ON THE WILD SIDE International photographer Kim Teoh showcases magnificent images at the Fo Guang Shan temple in Flat Bush. P5
A NAME YOU CAN TRUST! Thursday, January 12, 2017
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Some of the cannabis crops and equipment discovered on December 15 (above right) and on December 24. Photos supplied NZ Police
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Making a “conservative estimate”, police said that if the cannabis crops were left to grow, $1 million a year could have been be generated. “Each house was set up with at least several thousand dollars worth of grow equipment,” Detective Hamish Wyllie told the Times this week. “So a bit of time and investment had gone in,” he said. Two men, aged 29 and 42, and a woman aged 29 were located in the grow houses during the raids and were arrested and charged with cultivating cannabis. All three were previously unknown to police and have since appeared in Manukau District Court. Their hearing has been adjourned to a date in March. Five of the six grow houses were rental properties and the sixth was owned by one of the men arrested. Mr Wyllie, who is in charge of prosecution for the case, said police are alleging that the same three people that were growing the cannabis were also creating the “finished product”, but he said police do not know who was distributing it. ➤ Turn to page 2
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or months they went undetected – elaborate cannabis-growing set-ups operating quietly in residential streets in south and south-east Auckland. Then in the space of 10 days last month, seven commercial grow houses were uncovered by police, with more than 650 cannabis plants found flourishing under the roofs of nondescript suburban homes. On December 15, six hydroponic grow houses – three in Papakura and three in East Tamaki, and allegedly all part of the same operation, were raided and more than 500 plants were seized and destroyed. Nine days later, on Christmas Eve, a house in East Tamaki was searched by police and another 150 cannabis plants were found. This week, police said there was still no evidence to indicate a direct link between the houses involved in the December 15 raids and the one busted on December 24, but said there were similarities between them. Forty-five Counties Manukau Police officers and staff from the National Organised Crime Group took part in the December 15 raids, executing search warrants at four properties in Papakura and four in the East Tamaki/ Golflands area. The 518 cannabis plants were found at six of the addresses. The houses, some of which were milliondollar-plus properties, sustained some damage as a result of the activity taking place inside them, police said. They said each house had an “elaborate growing set-up with, on average, 60-80 plants of various age and size”.
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