Queenstown police revealed the arrests were the first phase of Operation Dove, targeting suppliers of LSD and ecstasy.
Detective Sergeant Grahme Bartlett said the operation had been under way in Queenstown and Central Otago for the past four months.
Police were now targeting drug dealers out to make a profit for the ski season.
"We are aware that in particular in the winter months a number of local people, and certainly a number of out-of-town people, which includes Invercargill, Dunedin and Christchurch, target Queenstown for the snow season or winter season as a means of income by supplying class A, B and C drugs.
"They [LSD and ecstasy] are becoming more and more a drug of choice and certainly again [in] this 'party town' mode."
Early yesterday, 11 properties were searched by Queenstown police, Invercargill armed offenders squad members and Customs officers. Eight warrants were executed in Queenstown, two in Cromwell and one in Glenorchy.
Yesterday afternoon, a further search warrant was executed near Lake Hayes.
Of the nine people arrested, four were held in custody and would appear in the Invercargill District Court today.
One woman and eight men, all aged between 26 and 35, were arrested.
While some of those arrested had "links to gangs", that did not mean gangs were infiltrating or targeting Wakatipu, Det Sgt Bartlett said.
"Police have a pretty good idea who is in town . . . with gang connections."
The four people appearing in court this morning face charges including offering class A-controlled lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) for supply, offering class A-controlled MDMA (ecstasy) for supply, supplying LSD, supplying class C-controlled BZP, a drug used in party pills and unlawful possession of a firearm.
Police are not opposing bail.
The remaining five will appear in the Queenstown District Court next Monday, facing charges of possessing BZP, possessing prescription medication, possessing utensils, theft and/or receiving a stolen chainsaw, offering to supply cannabis, possessing cannabis and unlawful possession of a rifle.
Of particular concern to police was the recovery of two .22 calibre rifles which consolidated concerns regarding offenders and access to firearms, Det Sgt Bartlett said.
"When you recover firearms in close proximity to where persons are who are supplying drugs, it raises the stakes immensely."
While some residents in the Frankton area woke to what sounded like shots at 6am, Det Sgt Bartlett said none were fired. The AOS had other procedures, which he declined to name, "to effect an entry".
It was not known for certain where the drugs seized had come from or how long they had been in the district, but Det Sgt Bartlett said they had not been manufactured locally.
Street values were about $40 a "trip" for LSD and between $80 and $90 a tab for ecstasy.
Det Sgt Bartlett said the operation was just the first phase of many, and more arrests would follow. Police had identified people they believed were actively dealing, he said.
