Police have arrested 15 people and expect to arrest more after they crashed a bulldozer through the front entrance of a Red Devils' gang house in Nelson this morning as part of a nationwide operation targeting gangs.
Police raided about 20 properties in Nelson, Tasman and Marlborough, seizing vehicles, firearms, explosive devices and possibly drugs as part of 18-month-long Operation Explorer, one of the deepest gang infiltrations in the history of the police under cover programme.
The operation, involving 240 staff, including the heavily-armed Special Tactics Group, specialist search teams, armed offenders squads and the army bomb squad, police said in a statement today.
Two properties were also raided in Auckland, including the headquarters of the Hells Angels in Mt Eden.
Fifteen people were arrested this morning, and police expect this number to rise throughout the day as they mopped up the operation.
It was a "moving feast" as a lot of police were still on the ground, a spokeswoman said.
Details of the final number of arrests and charges were not yet available.
Police this morning said the Red Devils were a puppet gang for the Hells Angels, a prominent global motorcycle gang.
The operation had confirmed the gang's relationship with the Hells Angels and that its primary focus was organised crime, Superintendent Gary Knowles said.
"We never thought for a moment these were just good old boys on motorbikes, despite what their supporters and legal representatives tried to present them as," Mr Knowles said.
Police will reveal some of the results of the raids this afternoon in Nelson.
