Dozens caught in Cobra sting

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Armed Offenders Squad members lined up outside the house.

Members of the Armed Offenders Squad stand guard outside the house being searched.

Cannabis plants behind a wall.

A weapon is found on a couch.

An officer inspects the weapon.

A suspect is interviewed.

Armed Offenders Squad members leave the address.

Senior constable Dean Gifford with items recovered from the raids.

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Armed police found a naked man tipping a P-pipe and other items down a sink during a raid of his million-dollar Wellington home.

An air rifle, similar to one used to kill undercover officer Don Wilkinson, lay on a couch in the lounge.

Police have arrested 55 people and seized more than $100,000 in drugs and $200,000 in bank accounts in Operation Cobra.

Officers searched 60 properties over seven days in the Wellington District, finding drugs, firearms and cash  and 12 children living with drug users. They have been referred to Child Youth and Family.

The Dominion Post accompanied police on a morning raid of a home in Whitby where the man appeared to try to hide items. Surveillance equipment had been rigged up to monitor visitors to the house in the quiet suburb. Police found drugs and more than $10,000 in cash.

Another man was arrested after being stopped last Friday night at a breath checkpoint in Johnsonville, when police found a dozen cannabis plants in his van. He told officers he had heard they were searching properties and was moving his plants to avoid detection. He was charged with cultivation of cannabis.

The Wellington Metro CIB spent three months preparing for the raids and called in the Armed Offenders' Squad, drugs dogs and firearms dogs and the clandestine lab team for the searches that covered Wellington, Lower and Upper Hutt, Kapiti and the Wairarapa.

More than 200 charges will be laid, including manufacturing and supplying methamphetamine, cultivating and supplying cannabis, theft and firearms charges.

Detective Inspector Darrin Thomson was "over the moon" with the results. "We're telling our drug-trafficking community that we're putting them on notice. "We're going to continue to come through their doors, we're going to continue to make arrests and seize assets. We're focusing on drugs and organised crime and we're very interested in reducing this type of offending."

Operation Cobra also targeted heroin users, charging people with manufacturing heroin and supplying morphine. Morphine sulphate tablets are available on prescription and can be ground down to bake heroin. Last month, a 23-year-old Nelson man died after injecting heroin in a Wellington house.

The raid revealed a worrying trend  ESR tests showed cannabis found this year had stronger levels of active ingredient THC than in previous years, making it more harmful, especially to young users.

Mr Thomson said drugs created misery in the community, damaging users' health and placing financial strain on them and their families.

Drug sales and use were also linked to other crimes such as burglary, robbery and fraud as users tried to fund their habits. Police searching a Lower Hutt address where a man was charged with methamphetamine for supply found a haul of stolen items including laptops, I-phones, cameras, sports equipment, and over 50 bags and suitcases. They are hoping the owners will claim them back.