Police in Northland have arrested seven people after a fight between rival gangs in Kaikohe last weekend.
About 30 police have taken search warrants to 12 properties and arrested people aged from their teens to their mid-30s.
Northland Police Inspector Al Symonds said they would be facing charges of rioting, possession of offensive weapons, and some would be facing a charge of participation in an organised criminal group.
Mr Symonds said police found weapons such as chains, clubs, hammers, knives, and screwdrivers, and drugs including cannabis and methamphetamine.
He said people who live in Kaikohe were fed up with the gangs and their "thuggish" behaviour.
"The people of Kaikohe deserve a lot better than this," he said.
Mr Symonds said several weapons were used in the fight, and it was caught on CCTV cameras.
He said Child, Youth, and Family were involved in the operation to assist with any children of those who were arrested.
Police in Kaikohe said two local men who stepped in to break up a gang brawl in the town centre managed to do so calmly and peacefully, and may have prevented more serious crimes.
Nine people have so far been arrested and police are looking for another four after the bloody fight last Saturday, which involved knives, chains and clubs. They are aged from their teens to their mid-thirties.
Mr Symonds told Checkpoint the two men who broke up the fight risked their own safety.
He said the brawl was the third gang fight in the town in the past 18 months, and residents were sick of it.
Those arrested, he added, would be facing charges of rioting, possession of offensive weapons; some will be facing a charge of participation in a criminal group.
