The raids across five properties at Basin View, Sanctuary Point, St Georges Basin, and Tomerong on Wednesday morning resulted in a haul of various weapons and drugs.

Police located a number of firearms including a loaded 10-shot 12-gauge shotgun, a .22 calibre rifle with silencer, an air rifle, replica pistol, ammunition, an electronic stun device (taser), knuckledusters, tablets, believed to be ecstasy; methylamphetamines, cannabis plants, seeds, and cannabis; prescription drugs, peptides, knives, sling shots, and throwing stars.

The raids by detectives from the State Crime Command’s Criminal Groups Squad as part of Strike Force Shuttleworth and local police was investigating the activities of the Hells Angels OMCG in the local area.

Read more: Guns, taser drugs seized in Shoalhaven operation

“This operation was designed to disrupt the activities of these criminal groups and reduce the impact of crime in the community,” Inspector O’Reilly said “as is the community’s expectations.

“More and more criminal groups are moving into regional areas. They live in regional areas as they think they can fly under the radar and won't be targets.

“I’m not suggesting we have got a huge problem in the area, as we don’t.

“But this operation has been an example of police knowing what their activities are and targeting them. And we will target them wherever they are.

“We will continue to target criminals and put them before the courts.”

She said the South Coast Police District had access to a number of highly trained police resources from across the state.

“This operation is a good example of local police and specialist resources from Sydney working together,”  Inspector O’Reilly said.

“It was great work by police to remove these potentially deadly items from the community to make it safer.”

Inspector O’Reilly said the State Crime Command’s Criminal Groups Squad was a specialised group with specialist resources to target gang activities.

“They are specialists in this field and we work together with them,” she said.

“They have the specialist knowledge of the gangs and the people and the specialised and additional resources to tackle them.

“They work in with us as local police.

“If there is an issue identified and local police don't have the capacity to target the operation we can call these specialised police and access their resources.”

Inspector O’Reilly said anyone with information on any criminal activities on the South Coast is urged to contact police or Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000.