Police have issued the first dispersal notice, three months after new laws bolstered enforcement of offending involving gang members.
It comes as more than 400 charges have been laid for insignia breaches since 21 November 2024.
On Friday afternoon, Waitematā Police responded to a firearms event in Torbay on Auckland's North Shore.
A report was made about a firearm being presented at an address on Toroa Street, before offenders left in three vehicles.
Assistant Commissioner Paul Basham says frontline staff and the Waitematā Offender Prevention Team deployed to the area.
"Two vehicles of interest were located entering the Northern Motorway at Oteha Valley Road.
"Our staff carried out an armed traffic stop on the on-ramp and extracted occupants of both vehicles."
All six were extracted without incident and detained. A further search of one of the vehicles unearthed a loaded handgun and cannabis.
Police have charged a 28-year-old man with firearms offences, and he has been remanded in custody to reappear in the North Shore District Court.
An 18-year-old man was summonsed to the North Shore District Court on possessing cannabis.
Assistant Commissioner Basham says a dispersal notice was issued to occupants of both vehicles stopped on the on-ramp.
Three of those were patched members of the HeadHunters motorcycle gang, and others were gang associates.
"It goes to show that the new tools available to all of our Police staff is assisting in holding gangs to account when members, or associates, are committing violent offending," Assistant Commissioner Basham says.
"While two were charged over the firearms and drug offences, there were four others present when this reckless offending took place.
"The dispersal notice stipulates that they must leave the area immediately and not associate with each other for seven days."
Under the Gangs Act, it is an offence if either of the group are found to be associating with each other in this period.
That's not the only milestone for the Gangs Act.
As of 11 March 2024, 403 charges had been laid for insignia breaches under the new law. Over the same period, more than 4,000 charges have been laid against gang members.
Assistant Commissioner Basham says: "It's still early days but anecdotally we are seeing that new powers are meaning gangs have been forced to re-think their behaviour in public.
"We continue to encourage this high level of compliance and good judgment as we move forward."
