Ten gang members were due in court today after more than 100 police, many of them armed, raided homes in south Auckland yesterday, cracking three P drugs labs.
One of the eight homes raided in Manurewa was a Housing New Zealand home and was so badly contaminated with the drug methamphetamine, it is likely to be demolished.
The property housed two illegal laboratories.
During the raids 10 gang members and associates were arrested by armed police who found methamphetamine worth $40,000, pre-cursor chemicals, tens of thousands of dollars in cash and firearms.
Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Lynch said one of the houses raided in Shifnal Drive had two labs -- one in the garage and one in the house.
"It's being described as a substantial lab that is alleged to have been making commercial quantities of methamphetamine," he told The New Zealand Herald.
In one of the homes where a lab was found toxic materials had been absorbed into the home and forensic teams were cleaning it last night.
Mr Lynch said one of the homes may not be salvageable.
"This lab appears to have been a substantial laboratory and advice at this stage is that the house and the garage are just so badly contaminated that it's likely they're both going to be destroyed."
The 10 gang members were due to appear in Manukau District Court today on numerous charges, including manufacturing and supplying methamphetamine.
More arrests were likely, said police.
Detective Inspector John Tims said the three-month inquiry that led to the arrests targeted high-profile gang members.
He said the arrests "send a strong message that police and the community will not tolerate organised criminal gangs involving themselves in producing and supplying methamphetamine, a drug which is responsible for considerable harm in the Counties Manukau community."
