A senior police officer in the Hawke’s Bay Organised Crime Unit has let rip at the government’s funding of a meth rehab programme being run by Mongrel Mob members, which was approved by the prime minister.

The Kahukura programme, which serves up to 10 participants over eight weeks on a marae in central Hawke’s Bay, has received $2.75m from the Proceeds of Crime fund.

The programme sees participants working in a ‘’community garden’’ at the home of the president of the Mongrel Mob's Notorious chapter, Sonny Smith.

The programme is run by H2R Research and Consulting Ltd, and director Harry Tam, a long-time Mongrel Mob member.

NZ Police has backed the programme, and the funding decision was defended by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

Stuff has spoken to numerous officers who were stunned to hear of the funding.

In a letter to the editor of the Police Association magazine, Detective sergeant Mark Moorhouse, a supervisor in the Hawke's Bay Organised Crime Unit has put into words how he and his colleagues feel.

He said claims by politicians that Hawke’s Bay police supported the programme was “BS”.

Moorhouse was contacted by Stuff, but declined to comment.

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In his letter he said his loyalty “has taken too many hits this year from bureaucrats who seem hell-bent on undermining everything we do”.

“My gang-focus staff have for the past two years fought tooth and nail to confront the violence and insidious harm the Mongrel Mob, in particular, have unleashed in our community. More than 30 gang-related shootings in the year to date, and they openly flaunt the wealth they generate from the poison they infuse our communities with,” he wrote.

“The awesome staff on OCU (Organised Crime Unit) and NOCG (National Organised Crime Group) back this up with targeting the high-end conspirators and captains of these openly defiant criminals, trying to shut them down by taking their guns, drugs and assets away so we can at least try to minimise the harm on our communities, and do what we have sworn to do under Our Business and, even more simply, what we believe is right,” Moorhouse wrote.

“We are undermined by the courts and poorly served by a justice system. Corrections is a mess and we're not sure any more who runs the prisons.

“The only job satisfaction I have had this year is the fact that the people who work around me have seized huge amounts of firearms, drugs and assets and had an impact on these groups. While it might be a small ripple in a big pond, it is the only ray of light we have had. I am encouraged by the professionalism and tenacity of these awesome people.

“Now you want to tell us that nearly $3 million worth of our blood, sweat and tears is going to be allocated to a scheme that only allows the individuals who are responsible for causing the harm to be enrolled in it, to the detriment of more worthy causes, and then tell the country that the Hawkes' Bay Police support it. I need to call BS on this because the bulk of us don't support it,” Moorhouse wrote.

“I have seen no evidence from any gang or their leaders that they wish to distance themselves fromthe wealth they are generating from peddling this poison in our community. I have witnessed nearly four decades of harm from these individuals, and I desperately want to continue to believe in what I do for these organisations. There must be a better way to do this.”