Two pipe bombs, pistols and rifles were found during police raids on gang pads

Operation Explorer saw two properties raided in Auckland and a major bust in Nelson on the Red Devils, the puppet gang for the Australian-based Hells Angels biker gang.

Police said that two "professionally made" pipe bombs were found at a house in the coastal village of Mapua at the top of the South Island.

The devices could have caused serious damage, Tasman area police commander Gary Knowles said.

"We're still trying to determine what they were going to do with the explosive devices," he said.

"The worrying thing thing is that they had created these and that they were prepared to use them."

The undercover operation had been running for 18 months and was one of the deepest gang infiltrations in the history of the New Zealand Police.

Twenty search warrants were executed in properties in the Nelson area earlier today, with 28 people arrested and drugs, weapons, cash and other property including 11 motorbikes seized.

Drugs including methamphetamine and LSD were also found.

Dozens of police officers flew into Nelson on a Defence Force plane this morning ahead of the raids.

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A police bulldozer demolished the front entrance to the Red Devils' pad in Nelson's Natalie St.

Tasman Police District Commander Gary Knowles said the operation had produced significant evidence to support the police stance over the past two years that the gang's primary focus was organised crime.

He said the evidence also confirmed the gang's relationship with the Hells Angels. Membership of the gang has risen from four to nine, police said.

"We never thought for a moment these were just good old boys on motorbikes, despite what their supporters and legal representatives tried to present them as," Superintendent Knowles said.

The operation involved the NZ Defence Force, NZ Customs and the Organised and Financial Crime Agency New Zealand (OFCANZ).

Last month, 30 people were arrested in an operation focused on the Rebels motorbike gang, which is a major player in Australia's methamphetamine market.

Police said the Red Devils gang was networking with the Rebels.

The headquarters of the Hells Angels gang in the Auckland suburb of Glen Eden today was raided today as part of the operation.