On 15 October 2007, 300 hundred police officers dressed in full riot gear raided the township of Ruatoki, which lies at the northern end of the Ureweras. At the same time Ruatoki was being locked-down, police raids were taking place in other parts of the country. By the end of the day, 17 people were reported as arrested: 4 in Wellington, 6 in Auckland, 1 in Palmerston North, 1 in Hamilton, and 5 in the Bay of Plenty area. The "global war on terror," launched in the U.S. five years earlier, had finally arrived in New Zealand.