Police have frozen $4.8 million worth of property, vehicles and cash following a major Christchurch organised crime investigation. The asset restraints follow the arrest of six people two weeks earlier, after police executed more than 10 search warrants across the city, including at the Christchurch King Cobra chapter's Addington pad.

Detective Inspector Rebecca Cotton said police were granted a court order under the Criminal Proceeds Recovery Act, preventing the assets from being sold or transferred while the case progresses. Police said the restrained assets included four properties, 27 vehicles, jet skis, motorbikes, a caravan and more than $100,000 in cash.

The Southern Asset Recovery Unit said the assets were allegedly linked to unlawful activity. Detective Inspector Maania Piahana said police would continue considering methods to disrupt and dismantle organised crime groups and strip illegitimate wealth from those involved. The language points to a strategy focused not only on arrests, but on the financial structures that allow organised crime to continue operating.

For Christchurch communities, asset recovery cases can feel abstract until the numbers are placed beside the visible effects of drug offending and gang activity. Police argue that money, vehicles and property are not just outcomes of crime but tools that can support further harm. Restraining those assets is designed to interrupt that cycle while the legal process continues.

The case will still need to proceed through court, and the restraint order does not itself prove final guilt or ownership outcomes. But it does mark a significant step in a wider operation that police say took months of work across multiple teams. Anyone with information or concerns about drug-related or other offending has been asked to contact police.