DEALERS SELL WITH COPS NEARBY

Some drug dealers are so desperate to make money they're letting
their customers buy from tinny houses knowing the police are watching.

That's one of the shock findings police have come across in Operation
Buyer Beware, a blitz on people buying cannabis in Otara.

Counties Manukau police eastern area tactical coordinator senior
sergeant Karyn Malthus says the buyers are brazen and the dealers
often let their customers buy drugs knowing police are watching.

"Dealers are tending to send a lot of people away saying the police
are down the road," Ms Malthus says.

But some, desperate to make money, have started making sales again.

"They are letting their buyers get caught."

This is one of a number of surprising discoveries made as part of the
operation.

"I'm finding it relatively informative. I imagine the community would
find it rather shocking," Ms Malthus says.

Between March 8 and 19 police made 24 arrests. Thirteen of them were
made over seven days.

Of the 13 people arrested, the youngest buyer was a 17-year-old from
an east Auckland high school and the oldest was 55. Five had previous
convictions.

Ms Malthus says one tinny house has been closed after Housing New
Zealand evicted the tenants.

Housing New Zealand told police that in the space of an hour, while
they were there dealing with the eviction, about 20 people turned up
wanting to buy drugs.

"That also happens quite often when we are executing search
warrants," Ms Malthus says.

It is startling just how many buyers are people who work with
machinery, she says.

Among those arrested were a cabinetmaker, plant technician,
locomotive engineer, kitchenhand, fitter and turner, panelbeater,
storeperson and factory worker. Three were unemployed.

Two were high school students, and one of them was buying cannabis
during school time.

Three of the 13 buyers live in the Counties Manukau east policing
area - Otara, Meadowbank and Botany Downs.

The rest had come from Papatoetoe, Manurewa, Manukau, Auckland city,
Papakura and Tauranga.

They face charges relating to the possession of drugs and vehicles
being used in the commission of a crime.

Operation House of Cards started on Wednesday. It sees the details of
gang bosses and specific gang members pictured on a deck of cards.

The cards have been given out to police officers trying to find the offenders.