Attributable to Detective Inspector Graham Pitkethley, Waikato District Crime Manager:

Warrants executed across Te Kuiti today have resulted in the arrest of four men facing numerous charges including robbery, assault, and threatening to kill.

Three Armed Offenders Squad teams from Auckland, Bay of Plenty and Waikato this morning assisted Police with searches at seven addresses, in relation to recent offending in the area.

The men aged 41, 46, 49, and 53 are due in Hamilton District Court today and between them face the following charges:

Assault with intent to injure
Threatening to cause grievous bodily harm
Robbery
Wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Demands with Menace x4
Theft x4
Participate in organised criminal group x4
Threatening to kill x7

All four of those arrested have connections to gangs.

Further charges are likely to follow.

Items seized by Police this morning include:

-Two gang patches and a number of gang T-shirts

-Cannabis plant material, seeds, and oil.

-A Hawa rifle

-A Winchester .22

-Marlin .480 rifle

-Magnum 44 rifle

-A cut-down .177 rifle

-An assortment of ammunition including a large number of shotgun cartridges.

Detective Inspector Graham Pitkethley says it’s pleasing to be able to hold offenders to account.

“This shows that we take offending of this nature extremely seriously and will not hesitate to bring people before the courts.

“We do not tolerate intimidating behaviour in our communities and want to reassure members of the public that Police will continue to do everything we can to stamp out this violent offending," says Detective Inspector Pitkethley.

We continue to encourage anyone with information about criminal offending, or those concerned for their safety or that of anyone else, to come forward to Police or Crimestoppers.

ENDS

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