Police have seized a large amount of allegedly stolen pounamu from two retail outlets at Hokitika, on the South Island West Coast.
The unique greenstone, which is called snowflake pounamu, is the property of Ngai Tahu and is only found in South Westland.
Ngai Tahu has never given anyone permission to remove or sell this type of pounamu, but
police believe there is a substantial quantity of it slowly being fed into the market.
They are still investigating where the greenstone came from and say it is likely they will search other premises.
