The police are congratulating themselves on their haul of cannabis, stolen property and firearms seized during a national operation.
Codenamed Operation Dee, the six-month long programme over the 2015/16 growing season seized more than 130,000 plants and almost 80kg of dried cannabis.
It used fixed-wing aircraft and the New Zealand Air Force to give police an aerial view of growing operations and resulted in the second-highest recovery rate of cannabis in the past nine years.
Operation Dee:
Detective Inspector Craig Scott, who was in charge of the operation, said commercial cultivation can't be looked at in isolation because it has links to other crime.
He says the seized firearms were concerning because many were considered stolen, and the vast majority weren't secured correctly.
Police estimate the operation saved more than $500 million of socio-economic harm in destroying the plants.
Plans for next year's operation are already underway.
Newshub.
