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The show centres around four main characters who are members of an elite New Zealand taskforce based in Auckland NZ, intended to be a combination of police and customs officers. Despite being an elite force, they are, as their commander Ron Maddock reminds them, under-funded, under-resourced and under the hammer. Because of this, the Roughies (as they are called) have to make sure that they perform exceptionally well to avoid being canned, as they are, after all, an experiment. Their members are: Detective Sergeant Danny Wilder, Senior Customs Officer Jane Durant, Detective Constable Zach Wiki and Noel Bullerton.
Problems between Jane and Danny erupt when Danny’s old girlfriend — and one-time colleague — turns up on the run from police corruption in Melbourne. Jane’s attempts to help Chloe escape a known hitman backfire badly — and Jane finds herself in the line of fire.
In a move that will put him offside with the New Zealand Police, Danny breaks ranks with the Roughies to seek vengeance for Jane. The search takes Danny deep into the Melbourne underworld where he not only finds the hitman, but uncovers the truth about Chloe's involvement with the Melbourne drug squad.
Police politics force Danny to give up on P labs in favour of shellfish smuggling up the coast. With Zack increasingly preoccupied with his domestic life, Danny’s unchecked thirst for revenge is in danger of putting the lives of his friends at risk.
Danny suspects sabotage in a sleepy fishing village, and believes locals are at the bottom of the coastal poaching ring. But the tide turns when an attempt is made on the life of one of the locals — and of the Roughies themselves.
Chloe's god-son is at the centre of a drug investigation, his safety entrusted to her by the boy's auntie, but his unwillingness to trust the police leads to a fatal outcome. Zack and Donna begin their first round of IVF.©
Chloe seeks revenge on Leo Sullivan and his family for the amphetamine-fuelled destruction that they have brought into her life. And while Maddock is demoted for some mishandled dentistry, Chloe finds that she and Jackie Sullivan have more in common than horse play.
Chloe goes undercover against Danny’s better judgement. Her plans start to go awry when Leo tries to get a piece of her action — and under increasing pressure from both sides, Chloe's plans backfire badly when personal issues cloud her judgement.
With Jane threatening to resign from the Roughies to return to Customs, the team is caught up in a sting involving a terrorist ship in the Auckland harbour. Because of her language skills, Jane is reluctantly dragged back into the Roughies plans — and discovers to her cost how far Danny was prepared to go for her. When Ron is shuffled off to the Diplomatic Protection Service, Parkes joins the squad and comes into conflict with Danny over his methods.
With the city under siege from terrorist threats the Roughies are on a countdown to unravel a complex plan to reduce the CBD to rubble. But with new management and too many rules tying them down, their chances of success don’t look great.
Jane is on the verge of quitting the Roughies — which leads to an authority clash when guns and ammunitions are found on board a visiting superyacht. And it gets worse when copies of sex tapes found on board are traced back to the Roughies. The strains finally take their toll on Jane and Danny’s relationship — driving her to a final decision about her future.
While Parkes tries to make his mark on the Roughies team by tying them even tighter in piles of red tape, Danny is enlisted by an old and dangerous friend to find the truth about the disposal of hazardous materials. She wants to know the truth about a death. And about the disappearance of her husband. And about the whereabouts of decomposing hazardous waste.
A stake-out at a bigtime Poker game runs the Roughies into the world of porn importers, dodgy lawyers, snuff movies and a violent transsexual. While Parkes tries to cover the Commissioner’s arse, the Roughies team are in danger of being run right off the road.
On the trail of a psychopathic killer the Roughies are dragged through a web of deceit and deception by a lying lawyer and the politics of a department that cares more about its image than its front-line staff.
