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.

About 300 police, including members of the Armed Offenders Squad and Special Tactics Group, were involved in the arrests in which four guns and 230 rounds of ammunition were seized and 17 people arrested. 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 but on 8 November the Solicitor-General declined to press charges under that legislation, which he described as "incoherent and unworkable", and "almost impossible to apply to domestic terrorism in New Zealand as it was too complex".

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.

Of 17 people arrested, just four came to trial in February–March 2012, and were found guilty on some firearms charges. On the 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.

A 2013 Independent Police Conduct Authority review found "...police searches, vehicle stops, roadblocks and photographs taken in Tuhoe country on October 15, 2007, unlawful, unjustified and unreasonable."

Ngāi Tūhoe had long-held grievances against the Crown, particularly over land, including the land that now forms the Te Urewera National Park.

Police commissioner Howard Broad said the raids were conducted in the interest of public safety, but declined to outline the nature of the threat. Seventeen people were arrested in the raids, the most notable being veteran activist Tame Iti, who grew up and has lived much of his life in Ruatoki. Police documents allege Iti was preparing for an IRA-style "war on New Zealand" to establish an independent state on traditionally Tūhoe land.

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Wikipedia