Police destroyed more than 4000 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of $4 million, mostly from the Fiordland and Queenstown areas, during a week-long southern district drug swoop last month.

Police arrested 15 people from Oamaru south, including three Southlanders, after a search using an Air Force Iroquois located about 54 separate cannabis plots.

However, most disturbing was the apprehension of a 12-year-old boy in the Queenstown area, Detective Senior Sergeant Steve Wood, of Queenstown, said yesterday.

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