2007 New Zealand Anti-terror Raids

2007 New Zealand Anti-terror Raids

The 2007 New Zealand raids were a series of armed police arrests conducted on Monday, 15 October 2007, in response to the discovery of an alleged paramilitary training camp in the Urewera mountain range near the town of Ruatoki in the eastern Bay of Plenty.

About 300 police, including members of the Armed Offenders and anti-terror squads, were involved in the arrests in which four guns and 230 rounds of ammunition were seized and 17 people arrested, all but one of them charged with firearms offences. According to police, the raids were a culmination of more than a year of surveillance that uncovered and monitored the training camps. Search warrants were executed under the Summary Proceedings Act to search for evidence relating to potential breaches of the Terrorism Suppression Act and the Arms Act.

On 29 October, police referred evidence gathered during the raids to the Solicitor-General to consider whether charges should be laid under the Terrorism Suppression Act. Authorisation for prosecutions under the Act is given by the Attorney-General though he has delegated this responsibility to Solicitor-General David Collins. On 8 November the Solicitor-General declined to press charges under the Terrorism Suppression Act, because of inadequacies of the legislation. According to Helen Clark, the Prime Minister at the time of the raids, one of the reasons police tried to lay charges under anti-terror legislation was because they could not use telephone interception evidence in prosecutions under the Arms Act.

Four of the people arrested came to trial in February–March 2012, and were found guilty on some firearms changes. On more serious charges of belonging to an organised criminal group, the jury was unable to agree. The cost to the taxpayer, including legal aid and prosecution costs, was estimated to be well over $6 million.