15 NETTED IN DRUG BUST

Police destroyed more than 4000 cannabis plants with an estimated street
value of $4 million, mostly from the Fiordland and Queenstown areas, during
a week-long southern district drug swoop last month.

Police arrested 15 people from Oamaru south, including three Southlanders,
after a search using an Air Force Iroquois located about 54 separate
cannabis plots.

However, most disturbing was the apprehension of a 12-year-old boy in the
Queenstown area, Detective Senior Sergeant Steve Wood, of Queenstown, said
yesterday.

He would not disclose any further details about the boy, but said he was
allegedly being supplied with cannabis and then passing it on to others. Mr
Wood could not say whether the boy was selling the cannabis or merely
giving it away.

Police were "shocked" by the alarming discovery and the boy was now being
dealt with by police youth aid. A Nightcaps man, believed to be in his 40s,
was due to appear at a depositions hearing in the Invercargill District
Court later this month charged with manufacturing a Class B drug (cannabis
oil) and cultivating cannabis, after the police operation.

A Riverton woman pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis in the Invercargill
District Court last month and an Ohai man was expected to reappear in the
Invercargill District Court later this month on a charge of cultivating
cannabis.

Police issued 24 warnings and 51 offence notices as a result of the swoop,
which involved 14 police officers and six Air Force crew.

Police recovered 3299 cannabis seeds and 268 poppy plants were seized. A
sawn-off shotgun and two military-style semi-automatic weapons were among
11 firearms also seized.

Some growers had made a major effort to disguise their crops, but police
had not discovered any booby traps this year. Much of the cannabis was
being grown in the Fiordland, Milford Sound area and in the Wakatipu, where
just over 1000 plants were found. Most of those arrested were from Oamaru.
Further operations were likely.