A commercial fishing trawler and two refrigerated trucks have been seized as part of a Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry investigation into a large-scale black market operation.
Fishery officers also seized some snapper as well as a large amount of cash after entering the Auckland and Tauranga homes of the trawler's skipper, permit holder and those of the truck drivers.
The Ministry had been monitoring the situation for the past two months.
It believes that during this time more than 12 tonnes of the trawler's catch was not reported as required and appears to have been sold on the black market in those cities.
The fishing vessel, the New Fish 2, is also believed to have been involved in a snapper dumping incident, near Maketu, in September.
