Police target wanted people across city in Operation Prodigy

Raids have been carried out across Christchurch over the past two days in an operation aimed at hunting down people wanted by police.

Senior Sergeant Roy Appley said police seized 70 cannabis plants, four stolen vehicles, $3000 cash, a small amount of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia as part of Operation Prodigy on Tuesday and Wednesday.

They visited 500 people or places of interest, arrested or held to account 41 people and investigated a stolen car ring and stolen bike ring.

It was named Operation Prodigy because the last band to play at former music festival the Big Day Out was The Prodigy - and police refer to operations as big days out.

During the operation, police stopped 141 vehicles, some of which were driven by people wanted for traffic or driver licence offences.

Police targeted about 1000 people of interest, of which 168 had warrants out for their arrest and about 400 were wanted by police in relation to mainly dishonesty offences. Others were tracked down because they needed their driver licences suspended or received a court summons.

Star News travelled with police while they executed two search warrants on Tuesday. One related to alleged stolen vehicles, which were then potentially being modified and sold.

Said Detective Sergeant Jeremy Gunn at the scene: "We have a car which is reported stolen, so we're just trying to ascertain whether this is actually a stolen vehicle."

The other warrant saw police investigate the alleged growing of cannabis at a Hornby property.

Senior Sergeant Appley said Operation Prodigy took place because of the high number of people currently wanted in relation to crimes.

"We need to be better at holding those people to account quicker," he said.

People wanted in relation to burglaries and driving offences were often targeted during Operation Prodigy.

"Burglary is always a concern to us in Canterbury," said Senior Sergeant Appley.

"Burglary is wide-ranging in the scope now because it also includes a car being broken into in a driveway of an address, or some property that's not specifically secured at an address being stolen.

"It's not just a house break [in] or a commercial premises break [in]," he said.

Senior Sergeant Appley said people of interest can often be hard to find. and the Covid-19 pandemic had made it even more difficult.

"For various reasons, they can be difficult to find, and so because of that and other demands for Covid, it's taken a lot of our resourcing to other things and things like Covid happen from time to time and we have to commit resources to different areas.

"While these people are not held to account, then potentially they could be re-offending when, in a normal course of events, they wouldn't be because they'd have some sanction from the court on them," he said.

Senior Sergeant Appley said Operation Prodigy had three overall goals - to make communities, roads and homes safer.