Police say they have busted a wide-reaching drug dealing and money laundering operation in the North Island.

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The police today arrested eight people and confiscated more than $6.5 million in assets.

They said the syndicate was operating across Northland, Waitematā, Auckland City, Counties Manukau and Waikato.

Several significant cannabis grows were located with 193 plants and 9kg of packaged cannabis seized.

Police confiscated $60,000 worth of ready-to-sell cannabis from one property.

Five properties were also seized, as well as two vehicles worth $90,000.

“This is a significant restraint of millions of dollars’ worth of property and vehicles,” Detective Senior Sergeant Andrew Dunhill said.

Dunhill is in charge of the police’s upper north money laundering team.

A 40-year-old man from Waitematā was one of those arrested.

Police said he was believed to have links with a Vietnamese organised crime group.

Ten search warrants were executed as part of Operation Bush, an investigation over nine months into the sale and supply of cannabis and associated offending.

In total, more than 60 charges have been filed and the accused are due to appear in courts in Auckland, Northland and Waikato.

“Drugs continue to be at the centre of a world of harm created in our communities and we have no tolerance for those who continue to accumulate assets and wealth through the sale of these illicit substances,” Dunhill said.