Cash seized by New Zealand police. Photo: Supplied / New Zealand Police
Auckland police have seized over $11 million worth of assets from gangs since the start of this year, more than four times what was seized in the same period last year.
Data provided to RNZ through an OIA reveals that $11.69m worth of cash, jewellery, vehicles, residential property, and other assets were restrained from gangs in the Auckland area from January to October 2024.
The value dwarfs that of the same time last year when police seized $2.82m worth of assets.
Detective Inspector Christiaan Barnard of the police Financial Crime Group said the value of seizure depended on several variables.
"You will find that what underlies that will be peaks and troughs that'll be driven by resourcing of like the National Organised Crime Group and District Organised Crime Group," he said.
Barnard said the number of active prosecutions, and which groups they were targeting were all variables to consider.
"Between the two years, we're probably talking about a number of variables come into play that determines the overall amount seized," he said.
"We don't know, often, going into these investigations exactly what we're going to find either."
He said seized assets are restrained and then sold by an official assignee, a role that sat with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, after which the money for it is put into the Proceeds of Crime fund to be allocated to different initiatives.
"That money is essentially a pot that can be then used to be reinvested back into a range of different initiatives," said Barnard.
This year, police seized $216k of jewellery, $383k of vehicles, and $2.094m of cash from gangs.
For the same time in 2023, police seized $146k worth of vehicles and $425k cash.
The largest value asset seized from January to October of 2024 was residential properties.
Police seized four properties, valued at $8.42m.
They seized just two properties from January to October last year, worth $1.722m.
Christiaan Barnard said certain assets, like vehicles, can depreciate with time.
"So, we can make applications to sell them much earlier," he said.
Barnard said there were additional costs to consider, like preservation and storage.
"They can be an expensive asset to maintain over a long period of time."
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